A Game of Chance (WORM CYOA SI Fic) - Complete
by xxJevranxx
Summary: An si finds himself in worm. Then things get a little crazy.
1. Chapter 1

**A Game of Chance (WORM CYOA SI Fic)**

Hello everyone, Jevran here. This is a self insert fanfic based in the worm universe. The cyoa I used for this story is this one. I really feel that this cyoa hasn't been given enough love. Which is a pity since it's a pretty cool cyoa and it kind of reminds me of a D&D adventure book with characters and campaign already laid out for you. I'm going to do my best to follow the campaign path and use the characters while telling my own story. Let's hope I get it right.

PS: If you are reading my other fic. This was what I was doing while I was supposed to be updating that one. Sorry.

 **Chapter 1**

It was a dark and stormy night.

It really was. Lightning flashed outside my window and rain went pitter patter against my roof. Now anyone with a pinch of wits _wouldn't_ be using a computer on a night like this and risk being fried by lightning, but I was feeling especially stupid and was working on a worm cyoa. The one I had chosen was the _upgraded cyoa v4 + the rouge expansion_. I loved it's power list and it's campaign like achievement structure. So there I was filling it out.

I choose the dockworker mode, giving me 0 points so that I had to take drawbacks to purchase points. Because hey, what's the fun in playing god mode? It's just a pretend game, not like I will be really risking life and limb in an alien world right?

Heh. Hindsight is a bitch.

But getting back to the story….. Then I went and filled out the disadvantages. First off I took the one Extra _Crisis on Finite Earths_. That's +4 points for me. It also made sure that random portals opened in the various wormverse alternate earths, bringing random parahumans into the world at random intervals and promoting much conflict. This is of course all part of the Entitie's plan.

I took _marked_ for the ABB, E88 and the Merchants. This gave me +3 points and made sure I would be hunted by three parahuman gangs. That would give me 7 points to go shopping with. I decided I needed a couple more points. I took the _conflict driven_ drawback for another +2 points. This will drive me to conflict with pretty much any parahuman I encounter but it also made it mandatory for me to take the _shardless_ perk. This would give me 9 points for the three draw backs.

Now I could go shopping. First of all I took the _shardless_ perk (-2 points). This made me immune to trumps and any other forms of shard manipulation. Then I got _Brain Bunker_ (-1 point) This made me immune to master powers. Next I went for _Insane Determination_ (-1 point). This ability gave me a pair of testicles on the level of the goddamn batman. Something that will surely come in handy in a grim dark world. Finally I took the perk _Fit and Attractive_ (-1 point) because you need this perk if you are going out in public wearing skintight spandex.

Next was the big choice. Powers. I was going to go with just the one power. But I was going to tune it up to eleven. And while it was tempting to choose super strength or blaster powers, or even a trump power to beat all trump powers..….. I was going to take a different route. I took the breaker power _Law Breaker_ (-2 points). This let me change how one universal law affected me by a factor of ten. I changed the Law of probability so probability favored me by a factor of ten. Translation, I was 10% lucky. Then I took the perk _Shattered Limiter_ (-2 points) that allowed me to jailbreak and supercharge my powers. I made it so that my probability manipulation power was supercharged from 10% to 100%.

Yes, this was my superpower. I was super lucky. Probability was my bitch. Granted it wasn't a traditional power, but I wanted to see what I could do with it. It kind of reminded me of a D&D game where every roll was a natural 20. In theory it should be a powerful ability. It also gave me an idea for my hero name. And it made it so that I hardly had to do anything. I just had to stand there and my power would work automagically.

And that was that.

I had spent -9 points for perks and powers and gained +9 from drawbacks. I had an overcharged superpower that I was eager to play with. Now all I had to do was build this selection into a character.

I decided to follow the same template the cyoa used.

 _ **Name**_ _: Victory (Victor Root)_ _ **Sex**_ _: M_ _ **Type**_ _: Hero_ _ **Cost**_ _: 9_

 _ **Bio**_ _: A seventeen year old who will turn eighteen in a few months. He is tall and well built. With pale skin, short brown hair and light brown eyes. Is athletic and attractive, determined and tough. Wants to make new friends but has trouble approaching people. A bit of a geek when it comes to superpowers and computer games. Wants to be a hero and change the world for the better. Many people have this dream, but most of them don't have super powers. One day he found himself suddenly transported to Earth Bet with his memories telling him that he is in fact a much older person who lives/lived in a world where this world is fiction._

 _ **Powers and Abilities**_ _: he is a probability manipulator. The laws of probability automatically change so that he is always incredibly lucky. This power is not under conscious control but is permanently active. This power is also incredibly strong. So strong that it's almost impossible to damage him or stop him._

Instead of just inserting myself I choose to build a separate character and insert myself into that character. And in true cyoa fashion he would start his adventure in a random ally in Brockton Bay with no history or identification that would hold up in earth bet.

Next I had to flesh out the last of the bio data about the world.

I choose a non-canon reality so I had leeway to change the wormverse, the worm timeline so I would arrive at the start of the canon story, pacing so that the story would proceed more slowly than canon and finally I took tinker Taylor for the heck of it. After a bit of thinking, I also added waifu mode. Because, funny.

In hindsight, not so funny.

All done.

I wrote down my choices and character bio before smiling with satisfaction. I was ready to start my adventure.

That was when the lighting hit.

When I came to my senses, I found myself lying on the ground in what seemed to be a dark alleyway in the dead of night. Which was strange because I could have sworn that I had been sitting at my computer filling out a cyoa when…. I remember a lot of light and noise. Had that been lightning? Had I been struck by lightning? In hindsight, using a computer in the middle of a lightning storm was pretty stupid. But if it had really happened, then where was I? How did a lightning strike victim end up here? Wherever here was. And I probably should figure that out before I did anything else. Still feeling oddly calm despite the weird situation. A quick check told me that I was wearing a pair of blue jeans, whitish sneakers and a brown t shirt. I had nothing in my pockets. No money, no phone.

Just great.

I stood there like an idiot for a good while before I decided to find out where the fuck I was. With that thought in mind I walked towards the mouth of the ally. As I walked I saw a rather unsteady man turn into the alley. I slowed down as this man stumbled towards one of the alley walls not ten feet from me and proceeded to urinate. Then he did up his fly and _then_ he sat down against the wall in the puddle of spreading urine and _passed out_. Throughout all of this he had given no indication that he saw me.

I cautiously approached the prone man, once I was close enough I could smell the drink on him. You see everything in the big city. I could also see what looked to be a rolled up newspaper sticking out of one of his coat pockets. After a brief struggle with my morals I stepped right up to the man and tried to shake him awake. Nothing. He was passed out. Even slapping him on the cheek lightly produced no results. Thus emboldened I yanked the newspaper out of his pocket and spread it out. I was looking for a date and information on where I could be.

I got both.

The Bockton Bay Times.

5th of April 2011.

W. T. F.

I sat down against one of the walls of the alley. Though I did take care to avoid the puddle of pee.

I was in a fictional city.

Was this for real?

How did I end up here?

I don't know how long I just sat there. It could be hours or minutes. I did know that the drunk next to me had started to snore when I finally paid attention to him again. I was trying to figure out how this could have happened. On a brief hunch I checked the pockets of my drunk friend and came up with a small hand held mirror, billfold and smart-phone.

A single look in the mirror convinced me that this wasn't a prank or joke. I was a different person. I was younger, my hair color was different, eye color was different and even my body shape was different. I knew of no tech that could make this kind of change to a person. Besides which, I looked uncomfortably like the character I made up for the cyoa I had been filling up before… all this started.

That character had a super power, he was super lucky. More scientifically, he was a probability manipulator. I wanted to test that out. If I had a super power, then it would be the final proof that this was real. The best tests I could think of was rolling dice and jumping to my death from a sky scraper. The dice should always roll sixes during the first test and I should be saved by some fashion before I fell to my death during the second test. But I had no dice and I wasn't crazy enough to risk the later. Unfortunately it was turning out to be a power that was hard to test. That was going to have to be put on hold.

For now though, I was going to get off my ass and get things done.

I knew that I couldn't stay in the alley for one.

I checked Mr Drunk's billfold and came up with a convenient several hundred dollars. I left a hundred dollars for Mr Drunk and helped myself to the rest of the money before boldly striding out of the alley and out into the wide world.

This wasn't a city I had ever been in. That much I knew. The signs on the shops and streets also told me that I was in Brockton Bay. I had all but accepted that I was really here. This was too big to be a prank or set up. No one could change an entire city just for a joke. I just needed one more bit of proof. I wanted to see a super power in action. I knew it was stupid. But I wasn't really thinking straight at that moment. It was the final validation I needed before I accepted my situation.

I continued to walk aimlessly through the streets for a while. I paid careful attention to the road signs and shop addresses. But otherwise I didn't particularly care where I went.

But eventually I got tired of just aimless wandering and hailed a taxi. The first thing I had to do was find a place to spend the night. Then I would start figuring things out. But of course I knew very little about Brockton Bay so I just told the driver to take me to the nearest hotel. The man assured me that it was only a short trip and put the car in gear. That was when something strange happened.

As I leaned back in my seat my foot bumped something. Closer examination showed that it was a small black briefcase. If I had to take a guess id say that I had been forgotten by the last person who was in this taxi. A quick glance showed me that the cab driver wasn't paying any attention. I picked up the briefcase and found upon trying to open it that it was actually unlocked. And inside was money. A lot of money.

I froze. There had to be thousands of dollars here.

The chances of someone leaving this kind of money in an unlocked briefcase forgotten in the back of a taxi…. The odds against that must be very very tall. A sneaking suspicion began to form in the back of my mind.

I had given myself a luck power. Was this my power at work? Was it providing me with what I needed to survive? The money will certainly come in handy. I closed the briefcase with a snap and leaned back in my seat. Now the question was whether or not to take this money. It obviously wasn't mine. And it just as obviously wasn't as simple as helping yourself to someones wallet. This was a lot of money.

On the other hand, I do need all the help I can get. If this is real, then I am stranded in a strange world with no identity and no friends. I needed all the advantages I could get. I clicked open the briefcase again and looked for a clue to it's owners identity. In a small side pocket on the inside of the briefcase I found what I was looking for. A drivers license would certainly identify who this was. The problem was there were half dozen drivers licenses, all made out to the same man under a half dozen names. He did look remarkably like me. Same hair style and eye color, even the facial structure was similar. Well first of all, someone who had half a dozen drivers licenses wasn't doing honest work. So just what kind of dishonest work was this guy involved in. Another card gave the answer to that one. It was an employment pass to med-hall. If I remembered the books right it was the local nazi front. So the owner of this briefcase and it's accompanying money was probably a racist criminal who worked for the local racist criminal super villain gang.

Well I suppose I could take the money with a clear conscience.

Checking into the hotel was pretty simple when you had a drivers license and lot's of money.

I got a single room on the cheap, paid in advance for a week, and rode the elevator to my new base of operations. It was a simple room with a bed, cupboard and dresser. I did have a small TV. A second door opened out into what I guessed was the attached bathroom.

I turned on the TV, tossed my briefcase onto the bed before walking over to the window and opening the curtains. Then I just stood and stared.

I was on the tenth floor and had a good view all the way out into the bay of Brockton Bay. There in the middle of the bloody bay floated a massive, futuristic construct that had to be the Protectorate Headquarters. I could see the _hard light_ bridge that connected it into the shore and the shimmering _force field_ that surrounded it.

And on cue, the bloody television began to play a news report about a parahuman battle between the bloody E88 and the local Protectorate. A glance at the TV showed people dressed in Halloween costumes fighting each other, bouncing around the place like beach balls. Yup, no earth tech I knew could replicate that. And just to hammer the point home further, a man in Greek style armor and helmet flew past my window right at that moment.

This was real. I really was here.

I calmly retreated back to the bed and collapsed face down on it before _passing the fuck out_. Later. I'll deal with all this later.

Pro tip, dealing with something later really doesn't really accomplish anything. Things are just as crappy later as they are now. The only thing it really does is give your brain the time to come to terms with the shock.

After sleeping through the night and most of the day, I had done exactly that.

I had made peace with myself and my situation. So much so that I was sitting in the shower cubicle of my attached bathroom curled up into a ball.

You see once I had accepted that I was in the worm verse I had wracked my memory looking for the cyoa choices I had made. I had chosen Tinker Taylor. Taylor was a fucking tinker. The woman who was supposed to save this miserable world and all it's attendant worlds from a multidimensional magic space whale didn't have the shard that let her do so. Or at least, I don't think she did. I may have fucked countless alternate earths.

Now you see why I'm in the bathroom. The toilet was only four feet away in easy reach.

Also of significance, I had also taken wifu mode. The perk that let…women get attracted to you. One of said woman was the ziz. I shuddered.

If I had known that this cyoa thing was going to be real I would have taken the Endbringer mode for 50 points, arrived well before canon, stopped Taylor's mom from dying, nipped her bully problem in the bud, stopped the Endbringers just as soon as they appeared and then knocked some sense into Eidolon before beating the crap out of Scion. Hindsight really was a bitch.

There was a tiny little silver lining in this situation tough. If this really was real then I had a parahuman power that increased my survivability even in this crapsack world. It might also be the only silver lining in this situation.

I drew a shuddering breath.

Well complaining about something I couldn't change won't help. I just had to take this situation as I found it.

What did I need to at the least survive in this new world?

Well first of all I would need an identity considering that I didn't exist in this world. Of course I had no idea how to get an identity.

I would also need money. Or at least a source of income. And while I did have enough money to last me a while I had the feeling it wouldn't last.

So…..short term goals, secure an identity and an income.

How about long term goals?

Help Taylor certainly. Help the city maybe. Help with the endbringers? Just as soon as I figure out how to. I refused to even consider Scion.

I decided to start with my short term goals and go from there.

Thus determined I arose from the shower cubicle and made my way into the hotel room.

No sooner had I closed the bathroom door behind me than there was a knock on the hotel room door.

I froze.

No one had reason to come here. I had instructed the hotel staff that I wasn't to be disturbed. So who was at the door?

The knock came again.

Dammit. Horrific scenarios involving everything from Cauldron to the local police went through my mind. I glanced at the window almost desperately, I was far too high up to jump out the window.

The knock came _again_.

I closed my eyes, drew a deep breath. No help for it. I slowly approached the door and just as slowly opened it a crack.

A man stood outside. A man wearing a domino mask and business suit.

"Good evening sir I believe you hired our services"

Whut?

"If I can come in I will take care of you in a second"

I blinked. Take care of what. Well this guy obviously has the wrong door. I just had to explain to him that and he will be on his way. Just as I opened the door fully and opened my mouth to say just that he spoke again.

"I have all the documents needed for your new identity. We just need to finalize a few details"

I closed my mouth with a snap. Then I silently stepped back and let this strange man into my room.

It turned out that my guest was a parahuman, a member of the organization known as the Elite, who are frequently hired out by the more unsavory members of society to provide a variety of services. I picked this up from the details he let drop while we made small talk.

He also had a set of papers all ready to give me a fake identity. Birth certificate, drivers license, the works. I just had to fill out a few details. The whole package cost me five thousand dollars, easily paid from the contents of my briefcase. And it was all over in twenty minutes.

I was now officially Victor Root. Age 19 (I decided to become a legal adult for convenience). As proof of this I had a birth certificate, drivers license and passport under my new assumed name. My thinker friend assured me that these records were being updated into the databases and even the paper files right this moment.

Just like that I was an official person.

I stood there in numb shock as the thinker took his leave.

Unless someone very very powerful was fucking with me, then I really did have a luck power. Half of my short term goals solved in less than an hour. I shook my head at the weirdness and decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth.

Once I had sat brooding for a few more hours I finally decided to get things done. I put my new drivers license in my pocket. Stuffed my other pocket full of cash, and left my hotel room and out into the great city of Brockton Bay.

My first destination was the library.

I had a lot of research to do about this new world that I had all but accepted was my home from now on.

I smiled at the nice librarian and paid for a library card before parking myself in front of a computer. First order of business, what was the history of this world and how did it divert from my own?

That turned out to be simple enough.

The almighty Internet that existed even here gladly informed me that the history of this particular Earth-Bet was practically the same as my own right up until scion turned up. He had been spotted for the first time by the passengers of a cruise ship in the eighties. The first public superheroes had turned up in the following years with the first supervillians following right upon their heels. The Protectorate formed in the early nineties and the first Endbringer came in the mid nineties.

That was when the history of this world diverged from that of the real canon Earth-Bet. In the Early two thousands portals had started to randomly open throughout Earth-Bet. The protectorate thinkers had identified these portals as leading to alternate earths. And the residents of said earth were using these portals to come to this earth. And sometimes the residents of this earth made use of the same portals to leave this earth. Because a portal only lasted for a few minutes before closing forever. And as far as the Protectorate could determine, no two portals ever opened into the same earth. It was usually a one way trip.

While most people would find this terrifying, several enterprising criminals of Earth-Bet had made clever use of these to escape justice. Also several parahumans from alternate earths were now wandering around Earth-Bet. Some of them benevolent, some not so much. This meant that while the protectorate had a few new faces, there were new villains around as well.

The membership of the Protectorate was unchanged. Hero was resting in pieces after meeting the Siberian. And the three remaining founders were Alaxandria, Eidolon and Legend. Canon power sets as far as I could determine. In the international sphere...China had the yangban, Japan was submerged, Newfoundland was gone. It was mostly the canon wormverse with a few quirks here and there.

Next up I check the local situation.

How had Brockton Bay fared in this Earth-Bet?

Answer, not so well. The Lords Port had ended up the Boat Graveyard after the now famous Brockton Bay riots. And the city had been under the heel of several parahuman gangs for decades now. In the beginning it had been the Teeth, the E88 under the Allfather and finally the Marche under the infamous Marquis. In the modern decade it was the E88, the ABB and the Merchants. I did find mention of a shadowy organization under a possible supervillian called coil.

On the side of the angels there was the futuristic Protectorate base floating in the bay. The more down to earth PRT headquarters within the city itself. And the local hero and Ward teams that operated out of both. There was also the famous new wave, who had their own website and who worked out of a couple of houses. A few independent heroes scattered here and there completed the lineup.

On the civilian side, industry in the bay was all but dead. The only major corporations working in the bay are Mehall and Fortress Construction. That was really sad. The two companies keeping the bay alive are both supervillian fronts. This place really was a hopeless dump.

I checked one last thing. The newspapers at the beginning of the year did report a girl found stuffed in her locker at the local high school. Students identity withheld on account of her being a minor. And surprise surprise, no one was punished for it that I could see. The only mention of it I got again was an 'investigations ongoing'. And there was still a Shadow Stalker in the Wards.

Yup, I decided as I closed the browser window and leaned back in my chair. This was Worm.

Now, what should I do? I was here. I had meta knowledge. What to do?

Should I try to help? That wasn't even a question. Of course I would. If the world was about to end, then I sure as shit would help.

But how to go about it?

Go to the Protectorate and tell them everything? I shuddered. No. Not with the Clairvoyant and Contessa around. Hell not with the ziz around. Before I could get two words out I would be dead and I really didn't want to test my still unverified luck power against the Path.

So what else could I do?

Take out the local gangs? Taken down Coil and help clean up the Protectorate? I really wasn't in any shape to take on Endbringers or talk sense into Eidolon.

In the end, I decided to take it from the bottom and work my way up. I would help people within my easy reach first and then work my way upwards. Hopefully acquiring the friends and panoply needed to tackle bigger and bigger problems along the way.

Well that was way too optimistic but I'll do that. And the first order of business should be helping Taylor. I would gladly help with her bully problem, see that the trio get their just deserts and help her become the badass hero I know she could be. It was also something I could do with a clear conscience, unlike the prospect of working with Cauldron which left a bad bad taste in my mouth.

Hopefully helping her would give me an in with the Undersiders and let me hook up with them. Hopefully them we could all team up to take on Coil, save Dinah and use the victory to establish the Undersiders as heroes.

I should also find the time to help pan-pan in some way. Hopefully Lisa can help for that.

It was a sketchy plan, but it was a plan.

But for all this I needed to find Taylor first. Turning up at her house would probably be a bad idea. I decided to wait until her school ended and stalk her like a true creep. Then I would _accidentally_ bump into her and introduce myself. I grinned to myself. I had experience with this. Yup that was a good plan.

I used the trusty computer to get the address of Windslow high school and added it to the small stack of notes I had already taken. Then, while whistling a merry tune, I pocketed my notes, locked the computer and stood up from my chair.

Then I turned around and walked right into Taylor Hebert.

In hindsight, that might have been my power telling me that my original plan was stupid.

-+-  
There we go. Chapter one. Please do tell me what you think. Praise. Flames and Corrections are all welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

Here is chapter 2. It moves the plot along and demonstrates the si's ability really at work for the first time. It's actual analysis will have to wait until chapter 3.

-+-

 **Chapter 2**

Of course I didn't know she was Taylor until later. I did know that she had fallen over and was scrambling around for her papers which had scattered during the fall.

"Sorry about that, I really should have looked at where I was going"

"That's all right" Her voice was low and soft, and she continued gathering up the sheaf of what looked like computer printouts scattered on the library floor without glancing up.

So like a gentleman I helped her up and collected her papers for her.

Then I really noticed her.

Standing up she was almost as tall as me. And I was tall. Long brown hair, thick glasses and gray hoodie. She had a plain but soft face. Her mouth was a little too wide. But it made her oddly cute.

That was when I noticed that I was staring and introduced myself.

"I'm sorry again Miss. I swear I'm normally not so airheaded. Shall we start again? I'm Victor. Victor Root" I held out my hand.

She stuck her sheaf of papers under one arm and took my hand in her own with a small smile. "I'm Taylor. Taylor Hebert"

Whut.

I felt light headed. In the back of my mind I noted her features. The hair, the glasses. Yup, she fits the description all right. Well done power, if this is indeed your work. But I had to rally to the occasion! The heroine herself was right here! I would become her friend!

I started by breaking out my sterling conversational skills. "So, uh. Do you come here often?"

She of course responded in kind. "Uh, most days"

Well maybe that wasn't the best opening, but I forged on. "Well I was about to leave…."

"So was I, I just got done doing some research" She indicated her sheaf of papers.

"Well, as an apology for running you over, how about I walk you out?" I offered hopefully.

Taylor gave me a deadpan stare even as she peered at me suspiciously. "I only just met you. I don't know a thing about you"

"And what better way to get to know me? I swear I'm not some creepy stalker dude!" I put on my best innocent face. Considering this face I was wearing had only been mine for less than 24 hours, it might not have worked.

Still, this time Taylor gave a small smile and shook her head. "Only as far as the bus stop"

"Deal" I grinned.

-+-

"So speaking as a native of Brockton Bay" I asked Taylor as we waited for her bus. "What _is_ there for a newcomer to see?"

After speaking for a while Taylor seemed finally convinced that I wasn't a creepy stalker who planned to do unspeakable things to her and had gotten somewhat friendly.

"Well there's always the boardwalk" Taylor was telling me. "It's the best tourist attraction in the city. Then I suppose there's the PRT building"

"They let you visit that?" I hadn't known that from my meta knowledge.

"Oh yes, I went there once on a school trip. They have a gift shop and everything. And the Heroes sometimes give speeches and do meet and greets" Taylor's eyes were alive when she said this. This was the most animated I'd seen her. Clearly this was a topic dear to her heart.

"You like heroes do you?" I asked her and was immediately rewarded by a blush.

"They try to help this city" Taylor waves her hand to indicate said city. "They are about the only people who are trying" Was she serious? She seems to have a very….. biased view of the heroes. Well at least she had relaxed around me. "If it wasn't for them the villains and gangs would be running amok through the streets"

BOOM.

One of the aforementioned villains turned into our street riding a….. vehicle.

How did I know it was a villain? Because the abomination was tearing up the street as it advanced. I sincerely doubt the heroes would permit one of their own to use any machine like that.

"You were saying?" I asked Taylor as I sprang to my feet.

"Oh god" Was her eloquent reply.

As it accelerated rapidly down the street towards us it our terrified eyes picked up more details. The vehicle looked as if….. an Ork battle wagon from the Warhammer 40k universe had somehow gotten displaced into this one.

It had probably started it's life as a bus. But now it had tank like threads instead of wheels and armor plating on every single surface. Added to that, machine guns and miniature canons were poking out of every single orifice. Also of note were the loudspeakers mounted on it's roof and the huge metal chimneys that belched smoke like a bloody stream train. And atop all that it was garishly painted in the colors of the Brockton Bay Merchants.

This was my first real look at parahuman power, and I suddenly knew how the parahuman gangs can make a mockery of the justice system and turn a city into their private little fiefdoms. A local police department can throw everything they had against this and it'll just bounce off. I doubt even anti tank weapons would work since that armor plate was _tinker_ made.

BOOM

"Heeeerrrreeeessss the MERCHANTS!"

With it's loudspeakers emitting that battle cry the vehicular abomination bore down on us. It hit a parked car and the car was just _tossed_ out of the way, landing in a crumpled heap from just impacting with the tinker vehicle.

It was also bearing down on us rather fast.

If _that_ ran us over… We'd be fucking _paste_.

I cast a single panicked glance over my shoulder. Far too late to run.

I turned and then tackled Taylor and bore her into the ground.

All I could do was lay there covering Taylor with my body and pray that that thing would miss us.

 **BOOM**

The largest boom yet shook the street.

A massive shock wave sent the surrounding buildings rattling and their windows shattered in a shower of glass shards. I felt the shock wave reverberate in my bones as I wondered deliriously if my ringing ears meant I had been deafened by the explosion.

The glass fragments pitter pattered on us like bloody _rain_.

Something landed with a thump in front of us.

I cautiously raised my head.

Barely twenty feet from us the massive mutant bus had simply _exploded_.

As far as I could tell the explosion was internal. Which meant the vehicle had broken almost in half down the middle with it's innards spilling out. Parts that had made up the thing had gone flying all over the street by the force of the blast.

One of the machine guns that had been embedded in the windows had buried itself into the ruin of the bus stop not five feet from us.

By a fucking miracle, we were both relatively unharmed.

I got to my feet and helped Taylor up too.

We both ended up having to shed little bits of glass from our clothing and hair.

I peered around owlishly, still somewhat in shock.

The street was ruined. The surrounding buildings were somewhat ruined. The road was wrecked. The few remaining pedestrians were running away as fast as they could.

Oh and there was a blond woman laying in a heap in front of us.

Taylor and I exchanged a glance before I cautiously approached her.

"Is she, is she alive?" Taylor asked hesitantly as I bend down and checked her pulse.

"No she's breathing" I winched as I felt along her bare arms. "I think her everything is broken though"

She was wearing shorts and a tank top that left her huge...personality all but spilling out. She was also wearing a crude metal mask.

"I, I think that's Squealer. One of the Merchant capes. She's a tinker I think"

"Damn" I cursed. "Should we call an ambulance? Or the police?"

"I, I don't have a phone" Taylor admitted.

"Neither do I" I knew I had forgotten something. "Well" I indicated the ruined street around us. "It's only a matter of time until police get here anyway. We can just go…."

The words were no sooner out of my mouth than my plans were derailed by the most unwelcome of parahumans.

"The fuck you doing with my girl you cocksuckers!"

I looked up in surprise to see a figure climb _out_ of the wreckage.

Well. Squealer gets marks for driver safety if nothing else.

It was a masked man. Obviously parahuman.

He was black, wearing a leather pants, mesh west and biker jacket combo with a half mask that covered the top half of his face and left the mouth and jaw exposed. If he had been board shouldered with a clean shaven strong jaw he would have cut an impressive figure. However this man was skinny to the point of emancipation and hadn't shaved in days. He also hadn't bushed his teeth. In years if I was any judge.

"Get the fuck away from her before I rape you cunts so hard up your shit holes your…..." And he had a foul mouth.

It took no great leap of logic to guess this man's identity.

Skidmark. The leader of the merchants.

He creates force fields that can be layered over each other to make them stronger. I needed to find a way to keep him occupied for long enough so that we can get out of here. A way to keep his attention. He was only dangerous if given enough time to power up. So I have to do whatever it is quickly.

I cast about frantically for something, anything to use as a weapon or distraction.

In the end I needn't have bothered.

Just as Skidmark stepped up to us _something_ dropped from above and hit him on the top of the head.

Skidmark's eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed in a boneless pile.

I stared in numb shock. It looked like it had once been a part of the vehicle. It was a metal armor plate. I looked up. Then looked down again. Had, had that piece of metal really been blown sky high by the explosion, only to come down at just the right time and place to clock Skidmark on the head? If I had had any doubts that my power was up and running….

"Did that just happen" Taylor sounded just as stunned as I felt.

"Yeah" I just stood staring at the two unconscious parahumans. "That really did happen"

Then I managed to recover my wits somewhat. "Listen Taylor. We need to get out of here. It's only a matter of time before someone else turns up here"

"Yeah" She agreed. Shuddering as she surveyed the damage. "Lets go"

We had been attacked by two parahumans, and we had been lucky enough to escape unscathed by both parahumans. Best not to push our luck. Even if said luck was supernatural.

Of course it wasn't going to be that simple.

Just as we were turning to run, a third parahuman turned into the already wrecked street.

This one was on foot. He was also covered in assorted trash that transformed him into a living mecha. His trash mecha was easily twelve feet tall and very very fast. It was hurtling towards us at what must have been forty miles and hour.

"That's Mush" Taylor shouted as we continued running.

The third Merchant cape.

And he had seen us.

I don't know what he thought we were doing. But we must have looked pretty suspicious running away from the prone bodies of his fellow gang members because a glance over me shoulder showed that he had bent down, ripped a fire hydrant from the ground and had then thrown it at us like an ordinary man might throw a baseball.

Only he missed. And hit the twisted remains of the bus stop. Earlier, one of the mini canons from Squealer's truck had landed in the bus stop, causing it to be damaged in the first place. Now the fire hydrant hitting the bus stop somehow caused it to fire.

The shell made a deafening boom as it tore through the air leaving a bright orange tracer in it's wake.

It hit one of the poles that carried the electrical power lines down the street.

The pole fell, brining the power lines with it.

Right on top of mush.

Earlier. When he had he had ripped off the fire hydrant, it had erupted in a fountain of water. Drenching both the street and mush. This meant that the still charged electrical cables hit a very wet pile of animated junk.

The result was spectacular.

Mush howled like a wounded dog as his trash mecha sparked and shuddered. Then it collapsed. As in it literally collapsed. The pieces of junk fell off individually in layers and clumps and in the end all that was left was an emaciated looking man with a pot belly laying in a twitching heap among the wet junk.

I had stopped running. Behind me Taylor had done the same.

"Oh god" She was saying. "Oh god, oh god, oh god" Yeah she was panicking.

"That wasn't our fault" Meanwhile I was trying to justify this madness. "Was it?"

Taylor looked at me like _I_ was the mad one.

"Right. Let's. Lets just go"

And we went. Behind us the entire powered membership of the Brockton Bay Merchants lay in twitching heaps. In the distance, finally, we could hear the sound of sirens.

-+-

"So" Taylor eventually said as managed to reach the end of the war torn street despite the attempts of numerous super-villians to stop us. "Where do we go from here?"

"I have no idea" And I really didn't. "Maybe we can just go home and pretend this day was a bad dream"

Taylor had opened her mouth to reply, then her expression morphed into one of terror and she shouted at me to look out.

I turned, and there not two feet from me stood a man dressed in black combat gear and Japanese style oni mask. Oni-Lee. The teleporter/ ninja/ murderhobo who also happened to be the second in command of the ABB. For fucks shake.

"I have questions" The oni masked villain rumbled as a sharp sharp knife suddenly seemed to just materialize in his hand. "You will answer them"

What.

The fuck is this lunatic saying?

Oni-Lee was already reaching for me with his free hand. Just at that moment Taylor shouted and grabbed me, pulling me back at the same time as I tried to jump back. The result? We both fell back in a heap and I instinctively grabbed the first thing within arms reach to break my fall.

That thing turned out to be Oni-Lee's grenade belt. Which was packed with grenades.

A handful of the grenades tumbled free from the belt and fell on the both of us.

The Oni-Lee in front of us suddenly collapsed into a pile of ash as he teleported away. Presumably to get away from the dangerous and possibly tinker make bombs at our feet.

I scrambled to my feet and dragged Taylor up with me, planning to do the same when four thunderous BOOM's shook the street one after the other. I looked on in shock as four Oni-Lee's hit the street and lay there unmoving. The four bodies still smoking from the grenade blasts.

Even as I watched three of the Oni-Lee's collapsed into ash, leaving just one unmoving and smoking form.

"God!" I summed up the situation in true laconic fashion.

"Victor" Taylor's voice was strangely calm. Something in the back of my mind told me that maybe this wasn't a good thing.

"Yes?" I answered because honestly. What else could I do?

"I'm going to ask you a question. And I want you to answer me honestly" She really wasn't in character. Wasn't she supposed to be socially stunted and shy?

"Okay"

"Are you a cape?" Shit.

"Well, about that….." I shut up that line of speech immediately as she gave me a _look_. "I can explain….."

beep-beep-beep

I frowned "What's that?"

Realization hit both of us at the same time and out eyes widened. We both looked down at our feet where one of the tinker tech bombs was laying and emitting the little beeping noise.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what that meant.

"Oh shiii…."

BOOM!

-+-

"Arrrrrrrrrgggghhhh!" Taylor screamed next to me.

"Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh!" I manfully roared next to her.

Then both together. "Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh!"

Why did we scream? We screamed because we had been blasted sky high by the tinker bomb.

Of course after a while it occurred to me that if I could scream it must mean that I wasn't in fact dead.

A quick glance confirmed that I was all here. No missing limbs or bits. I felt around my waistband just to be sure. Nope, everything was here. Same for Taylor. If it wasn't for the fact that we were even now being bodily blasted into the sky, the grenade hasn't done anything to us.

"Weightless" Taylor screamed at me.

"What?" I shouted back over the sound of the wind roaring in my ears.

"That grenade made us weightless!"

Oh that made sense. So we weren't being blasted into the sky. We were floating. This point was proven immediately as the wind picked up and we were carried tumbling along. Me, Taylor and our escort of grenades.

Yes, a few of the tinker tech grenades had been caught in the blast and were even now floating alongside us.

"How do we get down?" I asked the most important question. Because while blowing in the wind was fun. There was more to life than this.

"I don't know!" Taylor shouted back. "Why are you asking me?" Because I'm an idiot.

I manged to reach out and grab one of the grenades. Maybe ne of these had the answer to getting down again? They got us up here after all.

Beep-beep-beep

Oh no.

"Taylor!" My panicked shout drew her attention just as the grenade in my hand went off.

BOOM!

There was no damage. No shock wave. No shrapnel. Nothing except for a single effect.

Gravity came back.

"Arrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!"

-+-

We fell through the convenient skylight of a convenient warehouse.

And landed in some kind of fluffy bouncy foam that had been covering a good portion of it.

We bounced harmlessly a couple of times and finally came to a rest as the foam effortlessly absorbed the force of our impact and cushioned our landing.

"What the hell is this?" Taylor asked as she managed to right herself into a sitting position.

"Who the hell are you?" Another female voice followed up on the first question.

This prompted me to look at the rest of the warehouse.

It was set up like a workshop and lab. All kinds of tools chemicals and electronics scattered about. More to the point, it was currently occupied by two people. Both distinctively Asian. A man and a woman. The woman had short cropped hair and the look of a mechanic or technician. Complete with tool belt and oil stained hands.

The man though, the man was _massive_. Easily six foot six and what parts of him I could see were covered in tattoos. He was also wearing what looked like a Chinese dragon mask made of metal. And as we watched in horrified fascination he actually _grew_ larger. He was also starting to smoke. As in literal smoke was coming out of his body. And I was betting dollars to donuts that this wasn't spontaneous combustion.

Mutherfucking _Lung_.

I really hated my power right now.

"You fuckers just made the last fucking mistake of your lives!" The Dragon of Kyushu said as he stepped forward.

Ohmigodwearegoingtodie.

Behind me Taylor whimpered.

Come on power! Do something! You didn't get me this far and put me through all this for nothing.

Beep-beep-beep

"Huh" Lung looked at his feet.

I looked at his feet.

There at his feet was an innocent looking tinker tech bomb, red lights blinking merrily.

BOOM!

Something erupted from the bomb and covered Lung in it's expanding sphere of influence.

When it was over, Lung, the dragon of Kyushu had been turned into glass.

Where Lung had stood was now a glass statue that resembled him down to the last detail. The cape that could solo the entire protectorate, that could wrestle endbringers, was dead.

It had also glassed the warehouse floor for 20 feet in either direction. Fortunately Taylor and I had been on the far end of the warehouse that had been covered in form. Thus the glassing had stopped before it could reach us.

The other occupant of the warehouse had also been lucky. She had just barely managed to avoid the glassing by quickly diving over a table and sliding over it to avoid the blast.

-+-

Which meant that the three of us were standing in the wreckage of the warehouse examining Lung's statue? Corpse? And figuring out what to do.

"So you two idiots are telling me that you two got in the way of an accidental tinker tech bomb blast, got accidentally blasted here and then _accidentally_ set off the bomb that killed Lung?" The woman, who had graciously introduced herself as Bakuda, demanded. She was also brandishing a small pistol at us.

Honestly that wasn't bothering me. After having been threatened by tinker tech battle wagons, teleporting ninja and kaiju wrestling rage dragons, a pea shooter just couldn't get me to panic.

I recognized her name of course. The bomb tinker who feature so prominently in the opening arcs of worm. I suppose she was the one who armed Oni-Lee with the tinker tech grenades. I'd also hazard a guess that this is her workshop.

"Yes, that's pretty much it" I agreed as Taylor clung to my arm. She's had taken everything that had happened remarkably well.

"Do you honestly think anyone will believe that cock and bull story?" Now Bakuda was getting angry.

"It might seem crazy. But that really did happen!" Yay. Taylor was supporting me.

"Bullshit!" Bakuda snarled. "Tell me the truth or I'll pop your fucking kneecaps"

Now I started backing up "Look lady. Just put that gun away and we..."

"Wrong answer fucker!" Bakuda snarled and opened fire.

The bullet missed me of course.

It hit the floor instead. Striking sparks from the concrete before bouncing off and hitting something else with a loud metallic clang!.

Beep-beep-beep

Bakuda's eyes widened. "Oh shit…."

BOOM!

My world disappeared in white light.

-+-

And came back an instant later.

I was now looking at an entirely new warehouse. From about six feet off the ground.

I yelled as I fell to the ground, feet first. I was a little jarred but managed to land on my feet. Two identical thumps came from my sides telling me that Taylor and Bakuda hadn't been so lucky.

There was also the pitter patter of the charming selection of tinker tech bombs that had come with us. The deceptively harmless looking balls of destruction hit the warehouse floor and rolled away on all directions.

Then there was the sound of cracking glass as the huge Lung statue made contact with the ground and cracked down the middle.

We all three spent a few minutes staring at that sight.

Then we thought to check out the rest of the warehouse.

That was when we found the entire costumed membership of the Empire 88 looking back at us.

It seems that this particular warehouse was the property of the local nazi gang and for some reason they were all present here today.

I recognized most of them from their descriptions. Kaiser in his steel armor that looked like a knight. Hookwolf already in breaker form. Alabaster looking like a deathknight out of World of Warcraft. There were almost twenty of them here. Enough parahumans to give both the protectorate and the local law enforcement the finger with impunity.

And we just appeared in the middle of their warehouse.

Next to me Bakuda whimpered. Oh yeah. She won't be welcome in this company.

Taylor was once more gripping my arm in a deathgrip.

I just stood there in shock.

That was when Kaiser stepped forward.

"Now then" That was as far as the E88 leader got before the now familiar beep-beep-beep sound began to fill the warehouse.

From multiple sources.

I had a second to remember the bombs before said bombs went off.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was pandemonium.

Bombs that turned their targets to glass. Bombs that gave off gases. Bombs that stopped time. Bombs that released huge bursts of electricity. And good old fashion concussion grenades.

All of them went off in the warehouse.

And all of them hit at least one empire cape.

And if the capes were too far away? A conveniently detonating concussion grenade propelled the required tinker grenade towards the target.

It seemed like a lifetime but in reality it lasted less than thirty seconds. But by the time it was over all the empire capes had been disabled.

Even the ones that couldn't be disabled normally.

Hookwolf had been turned to glass.

Alabaster was trapped inside what looked like a field of frozen time.

A huge gaseous form that I guessed to be Fog was covered in a type of foam that had somehow solidified him and now he looked like a modern art exhibit.

Most of the others had been hit by either electric bolts or concussion blasts.

I had done the sensible thing and once more pulled Taylor to the ground and covered her with my body, so we were unharmed except for the mind numbing shock.

Bakuda either hadn't cared enough to dive to the ground or had been in too much shock to do so.

She was now covered in a fine layer of dust from the smashed concrete of the warehouse floor and shaking like a leaf. She was also mumbling something to herself.

"Victor?" Taylors voice brought my attention back to her. "I would like to go home now please"

I closed my eyes. "God yes"

I got to my feet and helped her up. "Come on. We're leaving right the fuck now!"

We started walking in the direction of the warehouse door, careful to avoid any incapacitated empire capes.

We had barely made it halfway there when the now infernal noise came again.

Beep-beep-beep

Taylor and I shared a terrified glance. "Oh fu.."

BOOM!

Once more the world went white.

-+-

This time we appeared above a nice comfy king sized bed before tumbling into it.

It was a rather familiar king size bed. In fact…..

"This is my hotel room" I told Taylor. "Provided no more of those bombs came with us we should be good"

Taylor scrambled out of the bed and stood up as she looked around the room carefully before she looked at me.

"I think" She said very softly. "It's time you gave me an explanation"

I closed my eyes and drew a shuddering breath. Like any worm fan, I knew the basics of survival in this world. Top of the list stood the commandment, _Don't piss off the queen of escalation_. So, I tried my best not to piss her off.

"I might be a parahuman"

Her eyes narrowed. "Go on"

"I don't really have control over my power"

"I see" Taylor was still looking at me with those narrow eyes.

"But it's probability manipulation in my favor. And it's rather strong"

"Probability manipulation?" Taylor asked, while her brow furrowed.

"Yup"

"So everything that happened today was your power?"

"Well" I paused as I considered that question. How to answer that. "I think it was my power trying to protect me. Making impossible situations survivable by bringing the narrowest possibility to the top"

Taylor massaged her eyes through her glasses and shook her head. "You know, if I hadn't seen what I have seen today, I'd call bullshit. But there is no way anyone could fake all that" She finally let out a huge sigh and her shoulders relaxed. "So I guess I'll believe your story"

I grinned. "Thank you! So" I made a vague gesture with my hands. "Where do we go from here?"

Now Taylor began to massage her temples again. "I don't know. I need to think this through"

"Yes, of course" I agreed wholeheartedly. Today had been one _hell_ of a day. We will both be more rational after a good night's sleep.

In the end Taylor ended up using the phone in my hotel room to call her father and assure him that she was safe. Then she used my shower to clean herself and get the dust and muck and glass fragments off her hair. After that she went home in a cab I insisted on calling for her and paying the fair.

Before she went though we agreed to meet the next day and figure out our situation. I promised a more in depth explanation on my power and she promised to seriously talk with me about what we should do next.

As far as I was concerned all of that can wait till tomorrow.

As soon as Taylor was gone I fell into the bed without even changing out of my cloths and then passed out.

It had been a _long_ day.

-+-

Back at the warehouse, Bakuda stared at the place the two civilians had vanished from. Her teleporter bomb. It wasn't even in the testing stage and here it was working perfectly. Then she surveyed the damage her bombs had done to the E88. She looked at what her bomb had done to Lung.

Then she shook her head and began to laugh hysterically.

This whole situation was so fucking absurd! Someone had just waltzed into her workshop. Used her own bombs to take out her boss, then teleported both her and her former boss to the hideout of their greatest enemies and then proceeded to utterly decimate them with her bombs.

It was glorious. It was perfect. It would have been her crowning moment of glory if it had been her doing it.

And now she had been left in the middle of the handiwork wrought by _her_ tech, and she knew how this would look to anyone else.

She was still laughing hysterically when the Protectorate hero Velocity zoomed into the warehouse and took her down with a tranquilizer dart.

-+-

There you have it. Chapter 2. Please let me know what you think of it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is here.

 **Chapter 3**

Emily Piggot was the director of the PRT for Brockton Bay and also responsible for the Protectorate East North East. In her spare time she also babysat the wards.

She was also grossly overweight, had more health problems than most terminal patients and she really _didn't_ like parahumans.

Despite all of these responsibilities and drawbacks, she truly was dedicated to her job and was as stubborn as any mule. And she brought decades of experience and connections to the job. All qualities she needed with her beat being Brockton Bay.

Sometimes though, even she found herself at a loss.

"You can't be serious!"

This statement was delivered to the man who stood in front of her desk wearing tinker tech power armor and a beard. Armsmaster, the leader of the Protectorate ENE.

Said man of course made no reply. He might have raised an eyebrow inside his helmet, but the director couldn't see it. So she tried again.

"The three most prominent parahuman gangs in the city were…. Incapacitated in less than an hour, in less than 20 minutes if we have the time spans correct. Almost thirty parahumans arrested. And they won't be breaking out of jail this time because there isn't anyone _left_ to break them out. And _you_ are standing there telling me that all this happened because of _coincidence_?"

"Yes and no" Armsmaster gave a nice non answer. "As far as we were able to determine, each individual incident was a coincidence. But when all of them are taken together like that. Too many coincidences"

"Too many coincidences" The director agreed. "And do we know who was behind it all? If anyone?"

"The think tank in Chicago assures me that they cannot detect the hand of any Thinkers or precogs in any of this" At the directors incredulous look, Armsmaster elaborated. "That doesn't mean there isn't one. They might just have an ability that let's them hide from Thinkers, or it might be another power altogether"

"Wonderful" The director groused. "Now we have an unknown parahuman who took out three cape gangs in less than an hour"

"Hypothetical parahuman" Armsmaster corrected.

"Whatever kind of parahuman!" Emily snapped. "Well at least they took out the gangs. That's something"

"It will give the city a fresh start" Armsmaster actually sounded exited. "If we can keep it this way, then the bay can be one of the most crime free cities of the country from now on"

"Yes, assuming no other villains decide to take advantage of the sudden power vacuum" Emily responded dryly. "The Butcher comes to mind. Not to mention whoever planned all this"

"But if we defeat them as soon as they come. If we stop them from getting a foothold in the city, then we can hold the city" Armsmaster wasn't about to give up so easily.

"Well we are going to damn well try" Emily "Whether they were benevolent or not, whoever or whatever did this gave us the advantage. We are going to make good use of it"

-+-

The Brockton Bay Wards were having their own meeting.

"I guess we can all now hang up our masks and go home" Dennis aka Clockblocker declared as he kicked his feet up onto their table.

"It's not that simple" Carlos aka Aegis cautioned. "This will create a massive power vacuum that everyone will be trying to fill. Not to mention whoever planned this out. I'm sure they have plans"

"Killjoy" Clockblocker accused as he mock frowned at Aegis.

"He's right dumbass" Sophia aka Shadow Stalker growled. "Besides, putting away the capes did nothing to the unpowered gang members. And they will be going berserk without their leaders"

"We can always hope this mystery cape who planned all this has a plan for them too" Dean aka Gallant put in hopefully. "If they went to all this trouble to taken down the capes, they will also want to take down the minions"

"Maybe" Aegis agreed. "They must be a master strategist and tactician to execute a plan on this scale. They must have contingencies in place to cover the loose ends"

"Unless they are a super Thinker and their power tells them how to set stuff up just so to get just the right result" Clockblocker put in.

"Still what are they going to tell the public about all this? They can't just come out and say an unknown super Thinker suddenly popped out of the woodwork and took out all the gangs..." Gallant looked at Aegis. "Do you know?"

The leader of the Wards shook his head. "No, but I can guess. They'll probably blame Bakuda"

"Seriously?" Clockblocker demanded while Shadow Stalker snorted behind them. "I heard she wasn't even in costume when she was caught. How are they going to spin that?"

-+-

"We'll blame Bakuda" Director Piggot declared. "Then, we'll look for this other possible parahuman behind the scenes"

"Agreed" Armsmaster, the other occupant in the room nodded along. "She never protested when she was arrested and hasn't denied anything so far. Besides she is already guilty of murder and was broken out by Lung. Even if she's innocent of this she only has one place to go"

"Yes" Emily agreed. "And then….." She stopped as her desk phone started vibrating, the flashing button indicating that it's her secretary. "What is it?"

"Ma'am, Commander Calvert is here to see you"

The director sighed. "Let him in"

The door opened to admit Thomas Calvert, PRT commander and old acquaintance of the director. He was accompanied by a woman who was obviously a parahuman.

She was a slender woman wearing a black three piece suit and a light brown trench coat with the collar turned up. A fedora and domino mask competed the ensemble. Brunette hair peeked out from under the fedora.

All in all she looked like a private detective out of an old noir movie.

"Thomas" The director nodded at the commander. "Is this the rouge Thinker you told me of?"

"Yes, this is Watson" Calvert introduced. "Her power would help us out with this unique problem"

Said parahuman gave the director a vulpine grin from under her domino mask. "Hello director. It's a _pleasure_ to meet you"

"Yes, yes" Emily wasn't impressed. "Give us what you've got. You've been shown all the evidence already?"

"Yes, I've seen it" She drew a breath and steadied herself. "As far as I was able to determine all this started in front of the library street. Unfortunately we weren't able to get any camera footage because the EMP pulse that was released when the tinker vehicle malfunctioned shorted out all the electronics in the area. But I was able to piece together what happened" She stopped for breath. "The vehicle malfunctioned when it was about 20 feet from the bus stop. It's engine blew up. This explosion threw Squealer clear of the vehicle and she came to a stop in the street. Broken bones and concussion. Skidmark was in the vehicle itself in a kind of cockpit. It protected him from the initial blast. He got off the vehicle and went to Squealer. That was when he was hit over the head with a piece of the vehicle that was flung upwards earlier during the blast. Cracked skull and concussion" She noticed the director staring at her incredulously and sighed. "I know, and it gets better. Mush was acting as rear guard for the other two. When he rounded the corner into the street, he tore off a fire hydrant and threw it at the bus stop. Earlier a gun from the vehicle had landed in the bus stop and the fire hydrant caused it to fire. The bullet hit an electricity pole, causing the pole to drop on Mush who was already drenched in the water from the fountain. Electrocution and nerve damage"

The director wordlessly looked at Armsmaster.

"She's telling the truth" The armored hero answered reluctantly.

Watson had been staring at Armsmaster with a small smile. Then she shook herself and came back to her report. "Then comes the interesting part. As far as I can determine. Oni-Lee teleported in to the scene carrying several tinkertech grenades in his belt. Then he attempted to stop and attack someone. However during the attempt some of his grenades came loose from their belt. Oni-Lee teleported away. Possibly out of fear for the grenades going off. Then a last grenade came loose from his belt _while he was teleporting_ and detonated, also by accident. This explosion happened four times with all four clones. Broken bones and concussion"

"That" The director shook her head. "That corroborates what we were able to learn but to hear it like that"

"She's telling the truth" Armsmaster added in unhelpfully.

The director sighed.

"There's more" Watson got both their attention. "There was one last grenade blast. An anti gravity or weight cancel bomb. It blasted the people Lee was threatening away from the scene"

"What?" Said the director.

"What?" Said Armsmaster.

"Hmmmm" Said Calvert.

"Yup. Now I _think_ they may have been civilians. Or they might be the people responsible for this" Watson grinned.

"Where did they go? Where did they land? There were no reports from the police or hospitals about that"

"I don't know. It wasn't a straight ballistic trajectory or I'd tell you exactly where they landed"

"Well. You were right about everything else. You might be right about this too" The director allowed.

"I'll mark the blast sight for you. Check it for residue" Watson offered.

"We'll do that" Armsmaster stated. "Now lets move to the next incident…."

-+-

Hours later, Thomas Calvert was escorting Watson out of the PRT building.

"You are sure about your facts?" He asked as they navigated the maze of corridors.

"If the data they gave me was accurate then I'm sure boss" Watson was walking along with her hands in the pockets of her trench coat, her eyes roaming everywhere.

"So there is a new player in town, a possible thinker, who just neutralized the gangs. All the gangs"

"As far as I could see there is _someone_. I'm almost sure they are a cape. Sure there's no direct evidence pointing to them, but even lack of evidence is telling sometimes" She gave a smug smile. "If they hid themselves on purpose then they're not as clever as they think they are"

"Yes yes, but what was their motive for this?" Calvert asked impatiently. "Are they a vigilante? Cleaning up the city. Or are they removing competition? Preparing for a take over"

"I don't know" Watson admitted reluctantly. "Not enough data to tell at this point"

"Well whoever they are, whatever their motivation, they have to be found and dealt with" Calvert stated grimly. "I will get you started on that as soon as we get done here"

"Uh-huh" Watson watched the man warily. "And this will be my new job? I got to say boss, this is a lot of trust you're putting in me. Coming out to me" She grinned suddenly. "Brining me here. Showing me all this info….. I'm starting to wonder if you're getting a soft spot for me"

"Oh don't worry" Thomas Calvert smiled as he turned to face her fully and came to a stop. "You won't remember any of this"

Watson's smile disappeared. "What do you mean?"

-+-

At the same time in another place, a person identical to Thomas Calvert was walking through the corridors of an underground base, tailed by two men in military body style armor and carrying assault rifles.

He was barking orders into a phone.

"Send a message to Tattletale to come over, I want her brought to me as soon as she arrives. Then tell Mr Smith to get his team ready. I may have a job for them"

He paused to jump over several electrical cables that were laying on his path. His base was still being built. But it was almost done.

The soldiers behind him were not so lucky.

One of them tripped on the electrical cables, stumbled and fell.

This caused the gun in his hands to fire.

A three bullet burst went right through Thomas Calvert.

As he felt the bullets tear through him, Thomas acted on instinct.

He dropped the time-line.

-+-

Back at the PRT building, the first Thomas Calvert froze. "Shit!"

Watson watched him warily. "You okay boss?"

"Shut up! I'm fine!" Thomas snapped and turned to walk away rapidly.

They had arrived at the top of a flight of stairs. As Thomas turned, he bumped right into another PRT employee who was coming up the stairs. This in turn caused Thomas to stumble.

And fall down the stairs.

All the stairs.

Watson was left standing at the top of the stairs looking at the suddenly very still form of Thomas Calvert that was laying at the bottom.

"Shit!"

-+-

"So you're telling me….." Director Piggot said as she waited with Watson outside the medical wing. "That Commander Calvert just slipped and fell down the stairs?"

"That's more or less what happened" Watson confirmed nervously. She had two armed PRT troopers flanking her. "I swear I didn't do anything to him. You can check the security cams"

"Uh-huh" The director said in a dry voice.

Just then the door to the medical wing opened and Armsmaster stepped out. "He's dead. Broken neck"

"Damn" The director said.

"Shit" Watson said.

"There's more" Armsmaster insisted. "He was a parahuman. Brain scan confirmed it"

"Well shit" Emily Piggot said grimly. But she recovered quickly from her shock. Then. "Lock her up" She gestured to the two PRT troopers behind Watson.

"Hey wait a minute! You can't just….." Watson began to shout but the director cut her off with three words. "Master/ Stranger protocols"

"Dammit! You can't just do this to me! I demand my lawyer before you try anything at all with me!….." Watson continued to shout as she was dragged away.

-+-

"Well" Armsmaster said into the sudden silence after Watson had been taken away. "This complicates things"

"Indeed it does" Emily agreed grimly. "Another strange coincidence"

"Too many coincidences" Armsmaster said.

"Too many coincidences" Emily agreed.

"We're going to have to do an internal investigation as well now" Armsmaster just had to add in.

"Shit" Emily said again.

-+-

This chapter is written entirely from the pov's of other characters. It's also more of an aftermath chapter. As always, criticisms are welcome. Please do tell me what you think of this story. 


	4. PHO Intrelude

Chapter 4. Enjoy the rapid updates while they last.

 **-+-**

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■

 **Topic: A New Age Dawns in Brockton Bay  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bagrat **(Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On April 7th 2011:

When most of us went to sleep yesterday Brockton bay was contested by three powerful parahuman gangs. The Merchants, who had cornered the market on illicit drugs. The Empire 88, who were a white supremacist gang. And the Asian Bad Boyz, who were led by the famous Lung.

Well today all three of these gangs are effectively defunct.

The entire super powered membership of these gangs are now residing in the cells of the local PRT. The gangs usual tactic of breaking out their captured capes isn't going to work this time because there's no one _left_ to break them out. So it does look like the gangs of Brockton Bay are gone for good this time.

How did this happen?

As far as I was able to determine. The merchants got into a scuffle with the ABB and fled in a tinker tech vehicle. This vehicle malfunctioned in front of the Brockton Bay Public Library. This resulted in the vehicle exploding and taking out Skidmark, Squealer, Mush and Oni-Lee who had been in persuit. They were quickly apprehended by the PRT who responded to the incident.

As for the E88, it seems Lung and his newly recruited bomb tinker Bakuda (See her thread here) assaulted a meeting of the E88 where their full cape membership was gathered. They then proceeded to assault the E88 with tinker tech bombs and Lung. The end result, the entire E88 taken down and Lung caught in friendly fire. The Protectorate came in and arrested the survivors of the battle, including Bakuda.

So what does everyone think?

How will this momentous event affect the future of the bay?

Any ideas?

 **Edit:**

On the subject of the New Age of Brockton Bay, many of us speculated that the new gang free bay might lead to heroes transferring out. While there are certainly rumors about that in the future, for now it seems our roster of heroes is expanding.

The Brockton Bay Wards received four new members today.

Insight – possible thinker

Cloak – possible shaker

Tripwire – possible blaster? Tinker?

K9 – possible master controlling giant dogs

There pictures of their debut can be found here.

What do you guys think about our new heroes?

 **Edit:**

I had spoken too soon. It seems that one of the local wards, Shadow Stalker is indeed transferring out. Apparently she's leaving for special training pending transfer to another city.

This might be the start of many more moves from the city.

 **(Showing page 10 of 48)**

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Damn…..

This is huge.

I know for a fact that a good section of them have enough strikes to make the birdcage.

Hookwolf, Lung, Oni-Lee, maybe even Bakuda. A lot of these guys are going away and we are never gonna see them again.

► **Mochazen**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

So the Protectorate and the PRT heroically came in and arrested the villains after they had done all the fighting for them? So _that's_ why we pay all them taxes to keep them running. To come and arrest the left overs after the villains finish fighting between each other. (And wrecking half the city)

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

That's our PRT.

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Even if what they did here was practically looting the battlefield you can't argue with the results. The gangs are off the streets.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Assuming they can keep them off the streets.

Let's hope our PRT can manage _that_ much. Now that the hard part has been already done for them.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Wait, wait.

Are you telling me that Lung! Fucking Lung! The guy that can fight off an _Endbringer_ was taken down by friendly fire?

► **Jinx**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

He didn't get taken down. He got served.

See the thread here.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Fuck me Lung is dead!

What the fuck happened yesterday?

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Something definitely happened yesterday. This many capes taken in by the PRT in a single day? I refuse to believe this is coincidence. Someone planned this. A new villain maybe? Someone with a crazy thinker power….

► **WingedOne**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

I approve.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Maybe there's a new hero in town. A super thinker who debuted by taking out the gangs!

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

It's a ziz plot! This is her plan to remove the capes who could have defended the city when the next Endbringer attack comes.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Go away.

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

On a more serious note. This might actually lead to some transfers to and from the city. If the PRT manages to get them to trial and prison this time. The city will end up with a excess of heroes for the first time in well.. forver.

This will result in transfers.

► **Silly623** (Verified Cape Geek)  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Guys, just because the powered members of the gangs are gone doesn't mean their unpowered members are gone with them. Gangs like the E88 and the ABB had hundreds of members, most of them armed. A lot of them fanatical. Loosing their leaders might just drive them into a frenzy.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

If they have two braincells in them they will drop their colors and blend into the masses or just leave town. The capes weren't just their leaders, they were their protection. Without their capes they are just squishy humans, and a _lot_ of people will want to settle scores with them.

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

I agree. They might cause trouble for a week or two. But with the Protectorate cracking down on them? With no capes to cover them? They are finished.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 7th 2011:

Yes, the PRT would want to show that they are doing _something_ after all.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **... 10,** **11** **,** **12** **,** **13** **,** **14** **...** **46** **,** **47** **,** **48**

 **(Showing page 14 of 48)**

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

I _think_ them new wards resemble some villains that have been active in the city a little too closely.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Shhhhhhhh!

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Besides, non of them have done anything serious. They could have cut a deal.

► **MrMister**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Maybe they saw which way the wind is blowing and decided to change careers?

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Except for one of them.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

There might have been circumstances.

► **Jinx**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Anyway let's not speculate on the identities of capes. We don't want to bring the ban hammer down on this thread.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Good plan.

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

I am gonna miss Shadow Stalker though. She was the hero this city needed.

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

But she sure as shit wasn't the one we deserved.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

I think we will be saying goodbye to a lot of our favorite heroes soon.

► **Jinx**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Hopefully our new heroes can pick up the slack.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Maybe we will get new transfers too? I want Mouse Protector!

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

We can hope.

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

At least the PRT didn't waste any time capitalizing on this opportunity. I've seen the heroes patrolling at all hours. And they seem to be really cracking down on the gangs. I'm hearing news of raids and arrests every day.

► **Jinx**  
Replied On April 12th 2011:

Yes! It does look like the gangs are going to stay gone this time.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **10** **,** **11** **,** **12** **,** **13** **, 14 ...** **46** **,** **47** **,** **48  
**

This is the first time I did a PHO page. I hope I got it right. As always please tell me your opinion on the writing. Is it good? bad? hopeless? All input is welcome. 


	5. Omake 1

This is an omake.

-+-

 **Withdrawal Symptoms**

The supervillain known to the world as Circus wasn't a legend like the Marquis. Circus couldn't go toe to toe with the protectorate's finest like Lung. But she considered her powers to be perfectly adequate. She had spiderman like reflexes and agility in a pinch, a nifty pocket dimension to keep her ill gotten gains and the ability to toss fireballs at her foes. What else could a supervillain need?

Our villainous heroine had been summoned to the city of Brockton Bay by the equally villainous mastermind Coil. And had been promised some shady missions and hefty pay. Circus had been employed by coil before and had been suitably impressed by the man. Now that was a _proper_ supervillain. He had an underground base and everything.

When she arrived however, she found Coil had dropped out of contact with no explanation whatsoever. She did hear some talk of how the heroes got lucky and captured all of the gangs of the city, but didn't spend too much time looking into that. She worked better alone anyway.

So with no word from her boss and with money running out, Circus decided to both let out some stress and fill her pockets by engaging in some good old fashioned robbery.

The chosen target was a jewelery store.

Jewelery stores made good targets. They had small easily carryable valuables and their defenses weren't really designed to stop someone of her prowess.

She was just coming out of the store with a bag full of her ill gotten goods when things went pear shaped.

"Hold it right there!" Circus stopped in her tracks. "Just what do you think you are doing?"

Circus looked up to see the floating figure of Glory Girl above her. The New Wave heroine was gearing up for another one liner but she froze when she spotted the mask Circus wore. "Oh my god!" Glory Girl pointed a shaky finger at her. "You're a super villain aren't you?"

"Um, yes" Circus said while wondering what this was about.

"Oh my God!" Glory Girl repeated. Then. "I'VE GOT ONE. I got a supervillian!"

"What the..." That was as far as Circus got before she spotted streaks flying through the sky.

It took a moment before she recognized them. Dauntless, Aegis and even Laserdream and Shielder of new wave. And was that Lady Photon? All of them bearing down on her. And Glory Gil was already flying at her like a bloody battering ram.

Circus vaulted over the head of the blond heroine in a ninja like move, ducked under her follow up attempt and ran back into the store. She exited into a convenient ally via the stores back door and kept running. She barely made it into the mouth of the ally before the shouts reached her.

"There she is!"

"Head her off!"

"Don't let her get away!"

The sound of vehicles accompanied the shouts.

Circus exited the ally and came to a dead stop.

There before her was arrayed the full heroic might of Brockton Bay. Every single member of the Protectorate, The entire expanded Wards roster and even the entirety of New Wave. She even spotted the new independent Browbeat among the mob. And wasn't that blond chick a villain? What was she doing among the wards? But Circus had more important things to consider, like the fact that all these heroes were bearing down on her.

Circus screamed like a little girl and ran back into the ally.

Laser blasts, lightning bolts, tinker tech darts, crossbow bolts, containment foam grenades and giant mutant dogs rained down around her. Circus had to use every ounce of her accumulated skills and powers to avoid capture.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Circus shouted over her shoulder at the legion chasing her. "I haven't done anything to deserve this!"

"We don't care!" That was Glory Girl.

"You're the first villain we've seen in weeks!" That was Shadow Stalker.

"You're the first villain I've gotten to catch!" That was Tattle… or whatever the fuck she was called now.

"Villains will never again gain a foothold in this city!" That was Brandish.

"I need one more capture on my record to beat Dauntless!" That was Armsmaster.

"Do I have your permission to heal you?" Wait, was that Panacea?

"Dead or alive you're coming with us!" They all shouted in union.

"You're all bugfuck nuts!" Circus screamed as she fled from the rabid heroes.

-+-

And with that arc one comes to a close.

ps: I'm treating Circus as female here. Because in their cape identity Circus is supposed to dress and identify as female.


	6. Chapter 4

This is arc 2 of the story, in which our heroes escalate and face the terrifying S-class threats of Earth Bet.

 **Chapter 4**

"I still can't believe this is real" Taylor crowed as she sat cross legged on my sofa with my new laptop in her lap. "The gangs are gone! Gone!" She cackled in glee as she pointed at the laptop screen. "They are all here. The E88, the ABB, the Merchants and the Undersiders. Are you sure about the Undersiders?"

I nodded. "Yup, they are the new Wards, the descriptions and powers match a little too closely"

"I still can't believe they just let them become heroes" Taylor grumbled. "They're villains!"

"You might not like it, but it does happen on occasion. Besides" I said to placate her. "They were robbers and escape artists. Smalltimers. That is probably why they could make this deal"

"I suppose" Taylor frowned at the computer monitor. "Do you know of any other villains who did this kind of deal?"

"Well..." I had long ago resolved not to lie to Taylor. "I suspect that Assault was an actual villain before he was captured and took a deal. I _know_ that Shadow Stalker was on probation"

Taylor was surprised at that. But I kept talking. "Which is why I don't believe this story about her getting transferred for advanced training"

"You don't think she was transferred?" Taylor looked at me in surprise.

"No I think she broke her probation" In fact I was sure. I knew from my meta powers that she once shot Grue with a crossbow bolt. And with Tattletale to bat for him, it was almost a certainty that Grue would receive justice.

"Well she's not a big loss. There are a lot of new Wards to pick up the slack" Taylor consoled herself.

"More than enough of them" I agreed. "But let's focus more on what we should do next shall we?" I tried to bring the conversation back on topic.

It had been two weeks since we met and two weeks and a day since my arrival on this world. A lot had happened during that time. I had gotten myself somewhat established by renting out a cheap apartment and buying the basic necessities in the from of cloths, laptop and phone. More significantly, I now had a good relationship with Taylor. Evidenced by the fact that she now had no problems coming over to my apartment to hog the Internet. She had also slowly started to come out of her shell. She really was a sweet girl when she started interacting with you properly.

I sometimes compared us to Harry and Hermione after the troll incident. As Rowling put it, there are somethings you can't share without coming to like each other and accidentally taking out all the parahuman gangs of a city was one of them. Regardless of how it started, we were now friends. So much so that she had told me her secret. After getting to know me and emboldened by the knowledge that I myself was a parahuman, Taylor had come clean about her own parahuman status.

Sure enough, she was a tinker.

After having a good panic about the missing Queen Administrator Shard and all it's implications, I asked about her specialty. Turned out it wasn't so easy. She could make a variety of things that made pinning down her specialty difficult. The only limit she seemed to have was that her tech had to be man portable.

We had put finding her specialty on the back burner for the time being. That was when Taylor pitched me her idea. She wanted us to become heroes and fight the evil in the city.

I very sensibly pointed out that the city was pretty much free of villainy at this point. Our little escapade had taken down the cape villains and the heroes were doing an admirable job of mopping up the mooks as we speak. We would be reduced to patrolling the streets and taking in people for littering.

Taylor remained stubborn.

"We will never know when a new hero would be needed" She insisted. "It makes sense to be ready just in case. Besides" She admitted to me. "This has been my dream since forever. To be a hero. To help people. Now I have the chance to do it"

Now I felt like I kicked a puppy.

"Alright" I relented. "Even if the city's mostly safe now I really don't want you going out there alone, so if you will have me I'll come with you"

"Really?" Taylors eyes lit up.

"Really" I nodded.

The next moment I was tackled into a hug. Taylor was really good at hugs.

"Thank you!" And that made it almost worth it.

-+-

Of course there was a lot of details that needed to be ironed out.

First off, I put my foot down about going to the Protectorate.

"With the way things are now, they will separate us and transfer us out of the city" This I knew for a certainty. There was also the fact that I wanted to avoid the Protectorate until Shadow Stalker had been firmly dealt with. But I couldn't exactly tell her that. For now this made a compelling argument.

"Are you sure?" Taylor looked really disappointed at that.

"I'm sure" I really needed to do something about Shadow Stalker. I was also worried about Coil. There have been no record of his arrest. Not that finding information about him was easy. For now though, I was going to assume that he was still at large and be appropriately cautious of both him and his PRT moles. "Maybe later on after we have become established we can join up. If we become fixtures in the city, then we can make us remaining here a condition of us joining"

Taylor perked up. "That would work! I had thought to build up some rep before joining as well" That had been her original plan if I remembered my meta. It didn't quite work out for her then. But this time she would have my help. "So I suppose this means we'll be forming an independent team?"

"Yes" I gripped my manhood with both hands. Metaphorically. "Let's make a Hero Team!"

I wanted to help this world after all. I couldn't do it if I didn't put myself out there and became proactive. I would just have to trust in my power to keep me safe. Of course a large part of my courage came from actually witnessing how powerful said power was. Even so it meant something. Deciding to be a hero. It kind of made my choice to help this world….. official.

"So what should our team name be?" Taylor asked.

"…...I got nothing"

-+-

After several futile attempts at naming ourselves and our team we decided to take a walk to both clear our heads and brainstorm ideas.

The walk didn't particularly inspire us, but we did have a lot of fun.

"How about the Luckster!" Taylor suggested with a straight face as we made our way leisurely down one of the more scenic streets of Brockton Bay.

"Oh ha ha" I was not amused. Well I was but I wasn't about to show it. "How about Miss MacGuyver for you?"

"Meh, No imagination" Taylor shook her head mock sadly. "That would be like you calling yourself Lucky Man!"

"Or you calling yourself Portable Girl" I joined in.

"And our team can be the Accidentals!" Taylor stated and I grinned.

"Ha good one" I grinned. "The team that gets accidental victories" Then I stuck a pose. "Halt evildoer! I am Lucky Man and this is my comrade Portable Girl! Give that candy back to that baby or face our wrath!"

We both burst out laughing.

"Though I hope there will be fewer of those _accidents_ " Taylor admitted after we had stopped laughing. "I don't think my heart can take much more of that"

"Well seeing as we've swept up most of the city's black hat capes it's unlikely" I assured her. "Unless an out of city villain suddenly turns up here"

"Hah, I guess" Taylor said as we resumed walking.

Not five minutes later we ran right into an out of city villain.

She just walked out of an abandoned building on the side of the street and into the street itself. She was also right in our path. She was standing in the patch of shadow cast by the building so we didn't realize what she was until we were too close and she had already turned to face us. By then it was too late.

She was a tall woman. Long limbs and long neck. She was also clad in blood red samurai armor decorated with razor blades and human skulls. One of her hands gripped a huge recurve bow that had to be six feet long. She was obviously a cape, and I could make a very uncomfortable guess about who she was.

"The Butcher" Taylor shakily voiced what I was thinking.

The Butcher smiled at us.

Then she raised one of her hands, a long finger pointing right at us.

Shit! This cape was an S class threat. And whoever killed her would become the next Butcher. So even fighting her was a Pyhrric battle. And she had weakened versions of the powers of all the capes that killed her. And some of her powers included things like the ability to create festering wounds and explosive teleport. This was one _fuck_ of a cape.

And all I had to face her was my power.

Please don't fuck me now power!

The sickening smile on the Butchers face faltered as she cocked her head, appearing to listen to something.

I frowned, I could hear it too. A crackling sound.

Suddenly the sound got louder and a honest to god _portal_ opened behind the Butcher. I had a momentary panic that Cauldron had found me and was taking action. But a woman wearing a fedora didn't emerge from the portal. Instead it was something from our side of the portal that came streaking down the road too fast for the eyes to follow and _slammed_ into the Butcher, sending them both tumbling through the portal at high speed, said portal immediately closed afterwards.

There was a sudden deafening silence in the street.

Suddenly Taylor gripped my arm hard enough for me to wince. "Did that just happen?"

I raised an eyebrow at her "If you are asking, _Did we casually banish an s class threat to who knows where in less than 20 seconds?_ , then the answer is yes"

Taylor nodded sagely. "You know what I love about working with you Victor?" At my questioning look she replied with a perfectly straight face. "The epic and hard fought battles"

Then we both started laughing like loons.

We were still laughing when the voice spoke from above us. "Excuse us citizens, could we have a moment of your time?"

We stopped laughing and looked up to see a pair of men dressed in Storm Trooper armor riding what looked like a star wars swoop bike.

W. T. F

"I am Uber and this is my fellow trooper Leet" Oh, _now_ everything made sense. "I was wondering if you had seen a Trade Federation Probe Droid? It came this way and we seem to have lost it's signal?"

I blinked, looked at Taylor, and we both collapsed into laughter again.

-+-

"You can't be serious!" That was my response when Taylor pitched me her latest idea.

We were sitting in a little coffee shop after telling Uber and Leet that, No we didn't see their bloody probe. We both decided that we needed to calm our nerves and found a nice quite coffee shop two streets over.

And after we had had our coffee and somewhat recovered, Taylor, being the tactical genius that she was had figured out a plan to somewhat control and weaponize my uncontrollable power.

It involved me putting on a costume and walking up to s class threats and forcing them to confront me. It would put me in danger from them and in response my power would activate and deal with them.

The worst part was that I was fairly sure it would work.

The other part was that it would force me to deliberately walk up to a fucking s class threat. That would take major balls and I wasn't sure mine were that big.

"We won't just put you out there" Taylor assured me. "We'll put you in tinkertech armor and give you an emergency teleporter. That will give you protection and an emergency exit button" Dammit Taylor, stop making so much sense. "And you'll have backup. Me and whoever we manage to recruit"

"Well….." Now how do you refuse politely?

"People like the Slaughterhouse nine and the Heartbreaker destroy lives everyday" Taylor just had to interrupt me. "This might be our chance to stop all that"

Sigh. She's right of course. People die in horrible ways every day in this death world. I had no illusions about what will happen to the inhabitants of a say a small town if the Slaughterhouse Nine turn attack them. If I have a chance to stop it. To help them. I have to take it.

"Let's work on that armor and teleporter" I said. "Then we can talk about the rest"

"Great!" Taylor _grinned_ at me.

What have I gotten myself into?

-+-

An hour later we were still in the coffee shop.

One thing of note that happened during that time was me checking the local news on my band new phone and finding a report that a random dimensional portal to an uncharted alternate earth had suddenly appeared in Brockton Bay and just as suddenly closed. This phenomena has been occurring for a while now, but this is the first time one had opened in the city, so everyone was exited.

I showed it to Taylor.

"You mean the Butcher is?" She looked astonished. And after the shit we've been through, that was something.

"Yup, out of this world!" I grinned at her.

Taylor shook her head. "Let's hope she doesn't find her way back. And that Earth is uninhabited"

"Hopefully" I agreed. "Lets hope my you know what knew enough to arrange it"

Other than that, we just sipped coffee and chatted away about a hundred things. Most things cape related. Some not.

"The first order of business should be costumes" I told Taylor. I was on my third cup of coffee, Taylor had turned to tea. "We will need to present a professional image. Not to mention hide our identities"

"What about the armor?" Taylor asked. "Wouldn't it be better protection?"

"We can add armor over our costumes" I stated. "So long as we follow the same theme, it shouldn't be a problem"

"That does make sense" Taylor's brow furrowed as her eyes unfocused. "I think I can manage armor, or assemble several portable tools together that do the same thing. But I don't think I can do a costume"

"Well it's disappointing but understandable" I waved a hand. "We can just buy one. I know for a fact that there are designers who make them. One of them is right here in the bay"

"Well" Taylor admitted. "I kind of have my own armor already" Of course she did. "I've been planning this for a while"

"It's fine" I assured her. "Then we just have to get mine"

"Yes, but" She looked concerned. "Are you sure we shouldn't wait to get you armor? It's safer"

"It can wait" I sized my courage with both hands. "I might not need it after all. Until it's ready we'll focus on soft targets"

"I guess" Then she grinned. "It wasn't as if the last s class that crossed you lasted five seconds. Sometimes I wonder if I'm still in the hospital and I'm hallucinating all of this"

"You were in the hospital?" I already knew, but I wanted to get her talking about it.

We had talked about a lot of cape related stuff, but not about our personal lives. This was a subject Taylor was closemouthed about. I wanted to help her fix her situation, and needed her to talk to me about it.

"Um, yeah. That was when I got my..." She gestured vaguely and buried her face in her tea.

And she's clamming up. "Ah, your trigger. Those are private. I won't pry"

"Thanks" She said half gratefully, half ashamed. That's it, I'm going to pay that school a visit very soon. "What's a trigger?"

"I trigger event is when a parahuman gets their powers" I explained. "It's usually the worst day of their lives"

"Oh" Taylor went back to staring at her tea again.

"Yeah. Hence why they are considered very private" I said in a soft voice.

Bang!

At that moment the door of the coffee shop banged open and we turned to see a horde of teenagers troop in. And it was a horde. I counted six, no ten of them in the mob.

"Here it is folks. My favorite coffee shop! You won't find another to beat it. Not in Brockton Bay!" That was a cute blond girl with freckles.

"That's not saying much Lisa" That was a red haired boy with a half grin on his face.

"Shut up Dennis, Brian back me up here, since when are my selections subpar?" The blond retorted as she led the horde to the tables near us.

"Since always" A tall dark and handsome guy in dreadlocks answered.

Wait a minute… Dennis, Lisa and Brian?

Horrible suspicion began to form in the back of my mind.

A sharp intake of breath from behind me caused me to turn, only to see Taylor with eyes wide and pale.

"Taylor? What is it?" I shook her shoulder and she turned her attention to me. After taking a deep breath she moved her chair so her face was concealed from the new arrivals my own body before speaking. "That girl, the black one. She's someone who has been… giving me trouble at school"

I carefully turned and check out the girl under the guise of staring at the waitress's ass. She was black, short, athletic. She also looked like a woobie. Hangdog vibes. Slouched posture. Hesitant steps.

If this was Sophia Hess. Then something was seriously wrong.

"She gave you trouble?" I asked Taylor just to confirm. And to maybe get her to open herself up to me. "Just what kind of trouble? And who is she?"

"She's Sophia Hess" Taylor confirmed part of my suspicions. "And she…. Did a lot of stuff to me, ending in something really bad. And she got away with it!"

"Oh" I said. Well shit. She confided in me. Sort of. It was a win. Hopefully this will bring the day we can be completely open with each other that much closer.

Out loud I said something else. "Something really bad? Was this when you…?"

Taylor gritted her teeth. "Yes….."

"I see…." Canon confirmed. Right out of the horses mouth. She caused Taylor to trigger. She put her in the locker. "Well she isn't looking too good right now?" I said to divert my self from thoughts of murder. "Maybe Karma is catching up to her?"

"Yeah. She hasn't been at school lately" Taylor said thoughtfully. "Neither has E… another girl who helped her do stuff to me"

"Oh" I said again. So Shadow Stalker and Emma are both missing school. The most likely cause is the former Tattletale.

Speaking of the late Tattletale….

She could read both of us like books! Neither of us had a Thinker defense! Dammit! Why didn't I think of this earlier? And speak of the devil, she was even now leaning back in her chair at the large table the horde had claimed, sipping her tea like a queen bitch and leisurely observing the customers inside the shop. Shit! Her head was turning this way!

I gulped, would my power classify this as a threat? If it didn't I was fucked.

"Taylor..."

Crack!

With a shriek, for former Tattletale fell off her chair that suddenly had a broken leg.

On the way down her head impacted the next table.

 _Then_ her body impacted the floor.

Then her tea splashed all over the place.

Then there was panic.

"Lisa!"

"Tats!"

"Ins…. OW!"

"Shut up!"

"Shit she's bleeding" Indeed she was bleeding from the head.

"Quick, call Amy!"

"Her phone isn't working"

"Serves the bitch right" That was a mumble.

"Shut up Sophia!" That was a shout.

"Both her phones aren't working!"

"Shit we have to take her to the hospital!"

With that the now confirmed junior heroes rushed their injured Thinker from the coffee shop, commandeered a nearby taxi, and rushed away. Presumably to the hospital.

Shocked silence descended on the coffee shop as the staff cleaned up the spilled coffee and the broken chair.

"Victor" Taylors voice brought my attention back to her.

"Yes?"

"Was that…?" She made a questioning motion with her hands. Code, was that your power?

"I think so" Code, Yes it was me.

"Why?" Now how to explain this?

"Well you see..." She was giving me that look again. I sighed. "This might take me a while to explain. Shall we go outside?"

-+-

Once we were safely outside the shop and in a convenient alleyway and well away from anyone who might hear any shouting our outbursts. I explained as best I could.

"Let me see if I have this straight" Taylor ticked off the points. "Those were the Wards in their civvies?"

"Yes"

"And the blond was Insight aka Tattletale"

"Yes"

"And she has a Thinker power that lets her Sherlock Holmes a person?"

"Yes"

"She was about to Sherlock Holmes the both of us and expose us as capes?"

"Yes"

"So your power hit her on the head?"

"Yes?"

"Are you asking me or telling me Victor?"

"Um, telling you?"

"Oh god!" Taylor massaged her temples. "You know what else this means?"

"What?" I asked stupidly.

"Sophia" Taylor snarled. "She's a fucking Ward! A fucking Hero!"

Ah. Well shit. This was not how I planned to make this reveal.

"Shadow Stalker. She has to be" Taylor was still ranting. "This is why they were able to get away with the bullying for so long. This why the school covered everything up. This is why even the locker wasn't enough to get them to back off"

I did the only thing I could.

I stepped up and hugged her.

Taylor growled inarticulately before bursting into tears and hugging me back.

Which left me holding a crying girl in the middle of a deserted alley.

I held her until her crying petered out.

Once she had calmed down a bit I said in a low voice. "If it's any consolation, she's been _transferred_. And judging by the way she looked today, she's getting hers"

"Yeah" Taylor sniffled. "That's something anyway"

"Come on" I told her while giving her a gentle shake. "Let's take you home"

"No" Taylor shook her head. "Let's do something else. Something cape related that'll help me clear my head"

"Taylor..."

"Please Victor"

I sighed. "Okay. If banishing an s class threat from this world isn't enough for you" Taylor gave a watery smile. "Let's go to the boardwalk and check out Parian's shop. Maybe we can hire her to do our costumes?"

Taylor gave a determined nod. "Okay"

With that we set off.

-+-

Meanwhile, in another earth, the entity known as the Butcher stalked through a ruined city scape, observing the empty streets, rusted cars and gutted buildings. She also noted the utter lack of people.

She came to rest in front of what must have been a city park at one point. But now the vegetation was gone. All that remained was dusty flat ground. At the center of the park was a statue of a man striking a heroic pose. At the base of the statue a metal plaque carved with letters had been sunk into the statue's pedestal.

The words were in English.

 _If anyone's reading this know that this is one of humanity's last massages we had mutually agreed to leave behind. The zombie plague that suddenly appeared in our planet is devastating us. Already our population is down to a few thousand, and it's only a matter of time until they too fall. If you are reading this, maybe a visitor from another planet, know that humans fought bravely and made a heroic last._

The Butcher stood there in shock.

There were no people here, no para humans, no way to get back! She was marooned on an empty earth. A zombie earth.

On cue, said zombies began to merge from the shadows of the surrounding buildings. They surrounded both her and the statue in a ragged circle.

With an inarticulate cry of rage, the Butcher drew her massive bow and opened fire on the zombie horde.

-+-

There it is. As always, all criticisms are welcome. Also, which s class threat should they fight next? I'm open to ideas. Just save Zion for last.


	7. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is here. Enjoy the rapid updates while they last. In this chapter our heroes continue their epic battle against the s class villains of earth bet.

-+-

 **Chapter 5**

A few days later I was to be found seated at my laptop and clicking away.

After my resolution to help Taylor with her mad plan to take on the various S Class threats around the globe I had started with the obvious first step. Research.

Next to my laptop was an open notebook that I was using to write down copious amount of notes. Next to that was a folded up paper that was folded so that the obituary section was visible. One particular obituary notice was circled with a red marker. It told of the sudden death by accident of one Thomas Calvert, who was a government servant of modest rank. I wasn't sure if this indicated Coil faking his death or his actual death. But considering Tattletale seemed to be genuinely a ward and Dinah Alcott was still with her parents, I checked, I decided to treat this as proof of death.

That wasn't the only surprise I had gotten during these last few days.

Apparently I, or rather Victor Root, was distantly related to the late Mr Andrew Root who was the last of his family and rather rich. I researched the late Mr Root carefully and even hired a private investigator to dig into it but wasn't able to find anything to say that he wasn't who he appeared to be. So I accepted the money and ended up rich. This translated to better furniture for my flat and an actual tinker lab for Taylor which I cajoled her into accepting. So now we had an actual secret base. A tiny secret base that used to be the master bedroom of my apartment.

We also had costumes in the works.

We had visited the rouge cape Parian and persuaded her to make us costumes. It wasn't cheap, but it promised to be professional and good quality. The costumes weren't due until the end of the week, so we spent the time preparing.

Which brought me back to my research.

I was carefully categorizing the enemies we will be facing in the future. A disturbing number of the S Class capes were to be found right here in North America. Only two of them were to be found in other continents.

There was the Ash Beast in North Africa. He was a cape that generates a _massive_ firestorm around himself that was always active. He was also the reason most of Africa was both unpopulated and uncivilized. The Ash Beast spent his time walking around and his very presence reduced entire provinces and districts to ash. Thankfully he moved slowly, so people did have enough time to evacuate. But his presence made permanent settlements in North Africa impractical.

There was the Sleeper in Russia. And no one knew just what he did. What everyone did know was that vast parts of Russia had been quarantined and all attempts to invade or infiltrate this quarantine zone had ended in epic failure. The only consolation was that the Sleeper was static. He had planted his ass in the middle of his territory and hasn't moved since. As far as anyone could tell, he only ever defended himself.

Both these threats were terrifying.

The only reason they weren't called Endbringers was because they were passive. They didn't actively attack cities. But they had enough power to do Endbringer levels of damage. To put things in perspective, entire _armies_ of African countries had been deployed against the Ash Beast. Entire divisions of Russia's massive army had been deployed against the Sleeper. There were even rumors of nukes launched against the Sleeper. All of this had achieved absolutely nothing.

By comparison, the only S Class threat in North America that might come close to this level of danger was Nilbog in Ellisburg. A walled city state filled to the brim with mutant monstrosities. This wasn't what made him so dangerous however. It was the threat of tinker made plagues and diseases that might be unleashed if Nilbog was ever attacked. Such an incident could potentially depopulate the planet. So Nilbog got to keep his little kingdom and play god inside the walls of Ellisburg.

Then there was Heartbreaker in Canada. He was a Master cape who could mind control anyone who came into his range. He was also said to be an amoral monster who spent his time mastering every pretty woman he saw and breeding a small army of children. Then he tortured said children in an attempt to get them to trigger. He was left mostly alone because he could master any hero that attacked him and any serious attack against him will also have to cut their way through an army of mastered innocents. The only good thing about him seemed to be that he lacked any and all ambition. He seemed content to sit tight in Montreal and enjoy the comforts of his harem.

And then there was the Slaughterhouse Nine. A group of massively powerful capes who spent their time randomly attacking towns and cities with the sole purpose of killing and torturing the inhabitants. They also had several very dangerous capes among them. Capes like the Siberian who was invulnerable and went toe to toe with the Triumvirate and killed one of them. Or capes like Bonesaw who had the potential to release Nilbog like plagues into the world. Not to mention their leader Jack Slash, who had an incredibly dangerous Thinker power that let him read any parahuman in his range.

Both Nilbog and Heartbreaker were within easy reach of Brockton bay. The Nine were nomads and were very hard to pin down. So it looked like these two were going to be our first targets.

With that thought in mind I started making a plan of attack.

-+-

Elsewhere in the city, the dynamic duo known as Uber and Leet were also busy in their hidden lab.

"How long were you working on this again?" Uber asked his partner as he ran his eyes over the structure that occupied a huge section of the warehouse they currently used as a lab.

"Since the day I lost the probe droid" Leet answered. "It's actually a combination of three designs I drew up a long time ago. I thought I had lost the notes. But I found them again when we got back to the base that day"

"Uh huh" Uber was now making a slow circuit of the structure. "And this is supposed to be a Star Craft building?"

"A Protoss Pylon" Leet confirmed.

Indeed it looked like one. An intricately sculpted massive metal ring of some golden metal with a giant crystal the size of a bus in the center. The entire structure floated about a foot off the ground.

"How does it get power?" Uber asked the obvious question.

"There's a power plant in the crystal" Leet answered promptly.

"Uh huh" Uber nodded. "I wont ask how you are powering something like this. Instead I will take it on faith that you aren't stupid enough to build a nuclear reactor or some other equally dangerous"

"Umm" That was Leet's eloquent reply.

"Right" Uber sighed. "And this works just like a real Protoss Pylon?"

"Yes" Leet confirmed.

"It has a shield?"

"Yes! And it's really strong. In theory it can even tank a nuclear blast so long as it's around the fat man power levels"

"Uh huh" Uber was not looking happy. "And it can teleport?"

"Yes! It has two modes. It can teleport alone or It can teleport with a group of people"

"And it's range?" Uber asked.

"Anywhere on the planet"

"Okay" Uber took a deep breath and turned to fully face his partner. "And are you sure, absolutely sure, that this won't malfunction in some catastrophic way? Because dude, you have already done most of this stuff. Force fields, teleporters and even antigrav platforms. And you know what will happen if you try to build the same thing too many times"

"Well" Leet was looking uncomfortable, but he was also looking stubborn. "I have built all of this before, but I have never combined them like this. And I was using my old designs so it might not count. I know this is ambitious, but you have to admit this would be really cool if it works"

"If it works, yes" Uber rubbed his face tiredly. "Okay, you already built it. Nothing to be done now"

"Yeah"

"I'm actually surprised you managed all this in such a short time" Uber gestured at the Pylon. "This is huge!"

"Yeah well, I already had the designs so I really just had to assemble them and do the cosmetic work"

"Okay" Uber said again. "So what do we do with it? Dress up as Zelots and raid the Terrans?"

"That's an idea!" Leet brightened. "We can manage the armor easy. The face might need a mask…."

Crackle! Crackle!

Uber froze. "Dude" He whispered. "What was that?"

"Oh god!" Leet whispered in terror. "I think that's the….."

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiinnnneee!

They both looked at the Pylon.

"Fuck!"

"Shit!"

ZOOOM!

With the bright white flash that near blinded both of them the Pylon vanished.

They both stood looking at the place where the Pylon had once stood.

"What happened?" Uber asked in a faint voice.

"I think the control unit malfunctioned" Leet had collapsed and was now sitting on the floor. "I didn't think to check how many times I had built that before"

"So it just teleported out?" Uber asked.

"Yes" Leet whined.

"Where?" Uber demanded.

"No idea. It can be anywhere in the planet"

"Fuck!"

"Yup" Leet nodded. "Uh, and dude?"

"Yes?" Uber was sure he wasn't going to like this.

"The power plant of the pylon was… sort of a nuclear fusion reactor"

"FUCK!"

-+-

In the sandy deserts of North Africa, in what was once the nation of Tunisia, the Ash Beast roamed.

A titanic firestorm raged around him. The temperature inside was hot enough to vaporise steel and completely destroy living matter. And this firestorm ranged for kilometers in every direction. Fortunately, the people that had lived here were long gone. Leaving their homes behind and fleeing in the face of this unstoppable monster. Resisting the Ash Beast had long ago been given up. The best response to the Ash Beast was now considered to be evacuation. Thus the Ash Beast found himself facing an empty desolate landscape. As always.

ZOOOM!

For the first time in a long time, the Ash Beast was honestly surprised.

There before him was a strange structure that had just materialized out of thin air. It was also projecting some type of energy shield that actually holding back his power. The Ash Beast had no idea what was happening. Was he under attack? Was this some attempt by the locals to finally get rid of him?

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiinnnneee!

The Ash Beast had a very, very, bad feeling about this.

ZOOOM!

-+-

ZOOOM!

The citizens, or what passed for the citizens of the sleepy and walled town of Ellisburg were surprised when a pair of somethings teleported right into the middle of their walled community. They were even more surprised when one of those somethings generated a massive living explosion around it that quickly engulfed their entire town and raised the local temperature to impossible levels.

However, no one was more surprised than a man named Jaime Rinke, who also went by the name Nilbog. He was standing in ground zero when the new arrivals teleported in and got a face full of firestorm from the Ash Beast. He was vaporised instantly.

The Ash Beast looked around him. He had no idea where he was, but he knew he had been brought to somewhere different. The landscape, what little of it he had seen before his power destroyed it, was very different. He stood there in what had been the Ellisburg town square and tried to get his bearings. He had never been abroad. He wasn't that well educated either. He had no foreign languages. And even if he did, it wasn't as if he could walk up to people and ask where he was. He was just contemplating what to do when…..

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiinnnneee!

The Ash Beast's eyes widened and he turned to run.

But it was too late.

ZOOOM!

-+-

Chief Director Rebeca Costa-Brown of the PRT wasn't having a good day.

"Can you please repeat that Dragon? I think I misheard you"

"You didn't mishear me" Dragon's avatar on the screen said in a very very calm voice. "The watch stations monitoring Nilbog report that the Ash Beast teleported into the middle of Ellisburg approximately ten minutes ago. Then he teleported out again"

"The Ash Beast"

"Yes"

"In Ellisburg"

"Yes"

The chief director shook her head and fell into a chair. "And how did the Ash Beast start teleporting suddenly? More importantly, where did he go? Where is he now?"

"I have no idea" Dragon answered.

"And Nilbog? What about him?" The director asked again.

"Well" Dragons avatar vanished from the computer screen and a new image appeared on the screen.

Director Costa-Brown furrowed her brows. "What is this?"

"This" Dragon said. "Is what's left of Ellisburg"

"Hell" Said the director.

It was a charred and smoking crater.

"The entire town and it's inhabitants are gone" Dragon narrated in the background. "As far as I can tell there is no contamination. He completely sterilized the area. There is no way to confirm it, but I believe Nilbog to be dead"

"Hell" The Director said again.

-+-

Jack Slash and his merry band of murder hobo's were holding a pow pow.

Everyone was present.

Jack himself. Bonesaw, Burnscar, Shatterbird, Crawler, Hatchet Face, Mannequin and even William Maton were in attendance. They all surrounded Cherish, a prospective new member who had actually _volunteered_ for the job. Why anyone would want to join a band of murder hobo's is anyones guess. But here she was.

"Now then Cherish" Jack said with his signature grin. "It's time to start your trials. We will start you with…."

ZOOOM!

"What the fuck!" Jack shouted as a body landed on top of him.

"Language!" Bonesaw admonished him.

"Get off me!" Jack shouted as he struggled to wiggle out from under the new comer.

The members of the nine tensed, but with the exception of crawler and Bonesaw's robot spiders, none of them were in a position to do anything due to Hatchet Face nullifying their powers. So crawler pulled the newcomer off Jack, while a pair of spiders helpfully helped jack stand up.

"All right" Jack said once he had his bearings. "Who the fuck are you and" He turned to look at the giant crystal thing, that now floated in the air behind them. "What the fuck is that?"

The newcomer, who as an unshaven dark skinned man who was also naked, drew himself up and snarled something incomprehensible.

"What?" Jack had many skills. But languages wasn't one of them.

"He's speaking Arabic" Shatterbird helpfully put in. "He damands to know where he is"

"Oh" Jack nodded. "In that case….."

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiinnnneee!

He turned towards the floating thing. "What the….."

ZOOOM!

-+-

Nikos Vasil, also known as the Heartbreaker, was spending a quiet moment away from his brainwashed harem.

He was standing on the balcony of his penthouse suite and gazing at the Montreal skyline. It had been decades since he triggered and he found himself sometimes having…. _performance_ issues. So, from time to time he found himself having to take some time away from his harem. Thus his balcony retreat.

He was just about thinking of going back inside and try for another round when…

ZOOOM!

"Arrrrrgggghhhh! Get off me!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"$%^&*#!"

"Laguage!"

"Daddy!"

"Who?"

"For fucks shake!"

"Ow my back!"

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiinnnneee!

Sudden silence descended at that ominous sound.

"Oh shi…."

ZOOOM!

-+-

Back in Brockton Bay, the leaders of the PRT and Protectorate stood together, presenting a united front. Why were they doing this? They were holding a press conference.

Director Piggot was speaking. "The PRT will be pressing charges against the parahuman tinker Bakuda concerning the production and deployment of extremely dangerous tinkertech weapons"

"Director Piggot! Director Piggot!" One of the reporters in the front row waved her hand. At Piggots nod she continued. "What about the other prarahumans who were involved in the battles? Aren't you putting too much of a focus on Bakuda? For example, I understand the Merchants were apprehended without any involvement from her"

"Miss I assure you each and everyone of them will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law" Director Piggot assured her. "I merely want to stress how dangerous this one parahuman is. Her bombs almost singlehandedly managed to disable the entire Empire 88. As a matter of fact" Here she nodded to Armsmaster, who stepped up to the table and unveiled several metallic spheres. "These are several of her bombs we sized when we raided her lab. Among these there are bombs that stop time, bombs that turn you into glass and bombs that create _pain_. You tell me if we should not focus on her?"

"But what of these rumors that Bakuda was merely a pawn in some other Thinkers plan to take out the gangs of Bockton Bay?" That came another reporter at the back.

"I assure you that these rumors of a mystery thinker cleaning up the city is just that, rumors" Director Piggot said firmly. "Quite frankly, it belittles the sacrifices our PRT officers and heroes made to keep the peace in this city and put these villains behind bars"

Crack!

At that moment the stage they were sitting on broke.

The entire structure teetered and collapsed, sending the officers and heroes who had been sitting at the table sprawling.

And the extremely dangerous tinkertech bombs went rolling into the audience.

Armsmaster jumped to his feet and jumped over the broken table. "Everybody get away from the bombs!"

The audience needed no urging. They were leaping to their feet and starting to stampede towards the exits when…..

beep-beep-beep

"Look out!"

BOOM!

A massive concussive blast picked up both hero and civilian alike and flung them against the walls of the conference hall.

A large open space had been cleared in the center of the conference hall.

Except for one metallic sphere that had bounced back to land at the very center of the cleared space.

Beep-beep-beep

Armsmaster scrambled to his feet for the second time. "Get down!"

ZOOOM!

The heroes PRT officers and reporters all watched in astonishment as eleven people and one giant crystalline structure materialized in the middle of the conference room.

BOOM!

And were frozen inside a time bubble.

"Is that Jack Slash?" Assault asked in a dazed voice.

"Think so" Someone answered in an equally dazed voice.

"So director, what was that about a non-existent Thinker taking out the gangs?" The reporter from earlier asked.

"Fuck you!" Emily Piggot replied.

The news cameras had been running the whole time.

-+-

Halfway across the world, the teleporting hero known as Strider teleported into a snow bound forest clearing.

"Thank you for coming" The man who said that had been the sole occupant of the clearing until then. "Shall we go then?"

Strider made no answer. In fact his eyes were closed and he seemed to be sleeping standing up. But Strider grabbed the man by his hand and they disappeared in a teleport.

They reappeared in another forest clearing.

The man let go of Strider's hand "Thank you. Ah, I believe my ride is here"

There was a crackling sound in the air, and a moment later a portal popped into existence in the forest clearing.

The man walked into the portal without so much as a backwards glance.

A moment later the portal closed.

Another moment later Strider woke up.

He looked around, blinking in confusion as to why he was suddenly standing in the middle of a forest.

A moment later he looked down at his hand.

He was holding a folded up note in his hand.

He shook his head a couple of times to clear it and opened the note.

 _Strider,_

 _Thank you for helping me GTFO._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Sleeper._

Strider peed himself.

-+-

I mentally patted myself in the back as I put the finishing touches on my master plan to take on the S-Class threats that plagued my new home. Because let's face it, I have to live here now.

It had taken a lot of research and a lot of brainstorming, but now I had the first makings of a plan. My first two targets were Heartbreaker and Nilbog. I had worked all day to carefully plan our approach and plotted out multiple avenues of attack. I also had backup plans. I planned to recruit Panacea for the Nilbog backup plan and Imp for the Heartbreaker. We would then use the deaths of these famous S-Class villains to lure in the S9.

I was thinking about calling up Taylor to bounce my plan off her tactical mind when my phone rang.

And speak of the devil. It was Taylor.

"Hello Tay. I was just about to call you" I smiled at the phone. "I wanted to tell you…."

"Are you near a TV?" Taylor overrode me.

"Errr, yes?"

"Turn it on. The news"

"Okay…." I grabbed the remote and did just that.

And there in TV was the image of a group of people frozen forever in what looked to be one of Bakuda's time bombs.

The newscaster was speaking.

"The people have been identified as members of the infamous Slaughterhouse Nine as well as the notorious Canadian villain Heartbreaker. The last person has been tentatively speculated to be the Ash Beast. Reports from Africa say that the Ash Beast has vanished…..."

"…..ctor? Victor? Are you there?" Taylor's voice brought me back to earth.

"Ye….. Ahem. Yes, I'm here" I answered her.

"Did you see news?" She asked.

"Yes" I answered, still staring at the TV.

"Couldn't you have at least waited until our costumes were ready?" Taylor sounded slightly hysterical.

I had no words.

-+-

There you have it. All criticisms are welcome.


	8. PHO Intrelude 2

Here is chapter 6. It's also a lot shorter than the others.

 **Chapter 6**

Chief Director Rebbecca Costa-Brown was having a conference in her office.

"Director Piggot, have you finished isolating and quarantining the blast site?" She asked the image of Director Piggot who occupied one of the six open windows on her computer screen.

"Yes Chief Director. It was finished a few hours ago. The entire conference hall is sealed off and we are even now working on turning it into a permanent vault" Director Piggot answered.

"And how are we doing with identifying everyone?" Director Armstrong asked.

Director Piggot opened her mouth, but the chief director answered the question. "We have positive id on all known members of the Nine, the unknown female has been identified as Cherish aka Cherrie Vasil. She was one of the Heartbreakers daughters. Allegedly had the power to control emotions over a huge range. We also have positive id on the middle aged male as Nikos Vasil, Heartbreaker himself. The only unknown is the nude male"

"And Heartbraker is gone from Canada? It's confirmed?" Director Tagg questioned.

"He is" Dragon, the only non PRT member present answered. "The Guild raided his stronghold and found him gone. There was some resistance from his guards, but his entire defense had been built around himself. With him gone, resistance was haphazard and we subdued everyone rather easily. We are working to provide medical assistance to his… victims. But it's shaping up to be a huge project"

"God" Director Armstrong shook his head. "That man destroyed hundreds of lives. It's going to be a nightmare getting everyone settled"

"Indeed" Dragon agreed.

"What about the last male? Has he been identified?" Director Tagg brought the conversation back on track.

"Our Thinkers believe him to be the Ash Beast" Director Costa-Brown supplied. "This is further backed by the evidence from Africa showing conclusively that the Ash Beast has vanished"

"He's not the only one" Director Armstrong put in. "We had confirmation today. Nilbog and all his creations are definitely gone. The firestorm sterilized the entire town. We have no body to show for proof, but he's gone"

"Not just him" The chief director informed them. "We can't find the Butcher anywhere. The Teeth are in chaos. My think tank believe this means she's somehow gone for good. And let's not forget Strider's report"

"Was he telling the truth?" Director Tagg questioned.

"It sounds fantastical, but it's true" The chief director admitted. "Of course there is absolutely no way to prove the note authentic. But our Thinkers swear it is, and the fact that the Sleeper has vanished seems to back up his statement"

"So the S-Class threats are gone?" Director Tagg said skeptically. "The Nine, The Butcher, Nilbog, The Ash Beast, Heartbreaker and Sleeper. All gone in one way or other"

"Let's not forget the Endbringers" Director Piggot reminded them.

"And any other S Class threats that might be hiding" Director Armstrong added.

"Still there is no avoiding the fact that some of the most dangerous threats to this world are now gone" Dragon put in.

"There is also no avoiding the fact that someone is doing this" Chief Director Rebbecca Costa-Brown said firmly. "Someone who can take down S-Class capes like they are nothing"

Here dragon intervened. "One of the members of the Nine, Hatchet Face, was a Trump who could nullify powers. My prediction software believes that his power kept the others from using theirs"

"Even so, someone had to arrange for them to enter his effective range right" Director Tagg asked and Dragon nodded. "That still leaves a very dangerous unknown"

"We can take a little comfort in the fact that they are targeting criminals so far" Director Armstrong said.

"At best they are a vigilante. One who has no problems killing" Director Tagg disagreed. "What are the limits they set for themselves? How do they decide who's a villain and who's not? When will they cross the line?"

"We don't know the answer to any of those questions" Chief Director Rebbecca Costa-Brown admitted. "But we have to find out. Someone this powerful is not someone we can just ignore. Dragon?"

"Yes" Dragon's avatar nodded on her section of the computer screen. "This sudden and precise assault on the S-Class threats bears remarkable similarity to the incident in Brockton Bay that took place two weeks ago"

All heads turned towards the window that held Director Piggot's face.

"Yes" Director Piggot said. "In less than 20 minutes all the parahuman members of all the parahuman gangs were disabled or killed. We took then all in with almost no resistance"

"I believe this was our mystery Thinker testing out their powers" Dragon took over. "The statistics I ran all point to this person being based in Brockton Bay"

"And it seems they have no problems killing people" Director Tagg put in.

"They can't be held responsible for the Nine or any of the other S-Classes" Director Armstrong protested. "But I do agree that they have to be called into account"

"We need to find them first" Dragon pointed out very sensibly.

"Then that is our priority" The chief director declared. "We will search for this mystery Thinker. But we do it discreetly. Our effort will be concentrated in Brockton Bay"

"Who will be doing all this?" Director Piggot questioned.

"We will appoint a task force" The chief director decided. "They will head over to Brockton Bay as soon as possible. I hope you will give them all the help you can Director Piggot"

"Of course" Piggot agreed.

Chief Director Rebbecca Costa-Brown took a deep breath and addressed everyone. "We are facing a new age. With the removal of these S-Class threats the world's parahuman landscape will irrevocably change. And I very much doubt it will stop here. We need to be ready to face whatever comes"

-+-

There it is.


	9. Canon Omake 1

This will be the last rapid update for a while.  
 **-+-**

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■

 **Topic: Taking the s class villains to the cleaners  
In: Boards ► Topics ► S-Class Threats  
Bagrat **(Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On April 21st 2011:

Okay people, this just happened.

The Brockton Bay PRT and the Protectorate ENE was holding a press conference to give their statement about the recent capture of all the supervillains of BB. The Director was building up a good head of steam and blaming most of the damage on Bakuda of the ABB. She had also just finished denying any involvement of a third party being involved in this bust of a century when this happened.

 **Edit:**

Holy shit guys. Nilbog is gone! Ellisburg is gone. The PRT guys watching it reported what looked like a nuke going off and engulfing the entire town, now all that's left is a burnt out crater.

This is what it looks like now.

 **Edit:**

There's more. The Ash Beast is gone from Africa. This is confirmed. The PRT believes the nude black male to be the Ash Beast.

 **Edit:**

Okay guys, I've got the Identities of the S9 members the PRT managed to dig up so far.

Jack Slash

Bonesaw

Crawler

Mannequin

Shatterbird

Burnscar

Cherish

William Maton

Cherish is one of HB's daughters. A powerful master with the ability to affect emotions. And William Maton was a PRT Scientist who is famous for discovering the maton effect. PRT experts suspect that Dr Maton was a master cape and was in fact behind the Siberian. That's right, they believe the Siberian to be a projection.

 **Edit:**

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better.

The Boston PRT reports that the Butcher has vanished. No trace to be found. The Teeth are going berserk. They are tentatively marking down the Butcher as retired. Don't ask me how it was done. But it was done.

But that's not all. Reports from Russia tell me that the same thing has happened to the Sleeper. Vanished without a trace. They are also hopeful that this is permanent.

So….. the S class threats that have been taken down in the past week alone are:

S9

Butcher

Sleeper

Heartbreaker

Ash Beast

 **(Showing page 10 of 48)**

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Well. That's one way to make a statement.

► **PixyPete**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Damn.

I guess we can now say with certainty that there is a Thinker somewhere doing all this.

► **Steve1523**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

So they cleaned up the city and now they're cleaning up the world? Damn they're escalating like a champ.

► **MrMister**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Heh. Piggot got _owned_.

They must be a super precog to do something like this _and_ get the timing right.

► **WingedOne**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

I approve.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Is that real? Because it totally looks like a fake edited vid to me.

 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On April 21st 2011:

It's real. It also happened during a press conference. Plenty of footage and witnesses out there.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

It happened on live TV you moron! It's real.

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Well fuck me!

Someone took down the S9, the Heartbreaker and a weird naked black dude. Then they timed it so they could be delivered to the PRT on live TV. That is one _baaad_ mofo.

► **MrMister**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

So…. The S9, Heartbreaker and Nilbog. They took the North Amarican s class villains to the cleaners.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Holy…. I can't belive it! They're gone. They're really gone.

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Indeed. With this the world will be a marginally better place.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Plenty of other s class capes out there.

► **Steve1523**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

But this is a start. It shows us that these people can be taken down and kept down. Plus this might be a warning to the others out there.

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Very true.

► **PixyPete**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

I wonder what this mystery thinker will do next. Maybe take down the Endbringers.

► **Mochazen**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

I hope they hurry up then.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

And meanwhile, our glorious PRT sat on their collective asses and did nothing.

► **Jinx**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Does anyone know who the naked dude is?

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

No!

► **Bob143**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Maybe he's a new recruit?

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Or an innocent caught in the crossfire.

► **Jinx**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Well damn.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

He should have worn a costume.

► **Mochazen**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

So the AB, HB, the entire S9 and Nilbog? Someone's been busy.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Wonder who'll get the bounties.

► **Bob143**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Maybe this guy will step up and claim them?

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Whoever they are, however they did it, they've done society a service. This guy, if it's a guy, succeeded where heroes failed. Where the _Triumvirate_ failed. And the world is a better place for it.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

True!

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

I guess.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

Yup, they succeeded where the heroes failed.

► **Bob143**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

What else are we calling this guy other than a hero?

► **Gecko17**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

For starters they need a proper name.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **... 10,** **11** **,** **12** **,** **13** **,** **14** **...** **46** **,** **47** **,** **48**

 **(Showing page 15 of 48)**

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 25th 2011:

The Siberian was a projection?

► **Bob143**  
Replied On April 25th 2011:

So an old dude projected a naked young woman? I have no words.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On April 25th 2011:

Well shit. Is there anything left for the Triumvirate to do anymore?

► **MrMister**  
Replied On April 25th 2011:

Don't forget the Endbringers.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On April 25th 2011:

Bet you fifty bucks this person steps in during the next Endbringer battle.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On April 21st 2011:

I'll take that bet.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **10** **,** **11** **,** **12** **,** **13** **,** **14,** **15 ...** **46** **,** **47** **,** **48**

-+-

And there it is. Please tell me what you guys think. There might be a few omakes after this but this is the last official chapter for a while. I need to recharge my muse. Also you guys are welcome to pick cape names for both Victor, Taylor and their team. The names you guys gave are much better than the ones i had in mind.

Until next time...


	10. Canon Omake 2

This is an omake, but it's also canon cause it kinda sorta happened. So it's kind of a canon omake.

-+-

 **Meanwhile In Cauldron….**

Once Chief Director Rebbecca Costa-Brown was done with the conference, she waited patiently for five minutes, then…

"Door me"

A portal appeared out of thin air and she walked through it and a moment later the portal closed silently behind her.

She stepped into what looked like a changing room with a single door opening out of it.

Five minutes later, the Protectorate hero Alexandria emerged from the changing room. She stalked down a long corridor and opened the door that led to a conference room with the ease of long practice.

The room was already occupied. Three people sat around the table that stood in the center of the room. One of them wore a costume.

"Welcome" Eidolon greeted her. "How did the directors react?"

"As well as could be expected" Alexandria said as she took her seat. "They have hypothesized the existence of a parahuman somewhere who's doing all this, and are appointing a task force to identify and possibly contact them. I gave them my approval"

"Nothing else you could have done" The Numbers Man spoke up from where he lounged in his chair. "Who knows, maybe they will have success where we failed"

"I still don't see why we aren't looking for them" Alexandria growled. "We have the Clairvoyant, we have _Contessa_ , and you flat out told me that we can't find this mystery parahuman"

The tables other occupants exchanged glances.

"We didn't say that" Eidolon was the one that finally spoke. "It's not that we don't have the means to find them. It's that we can't use them to find them"

Alexandria looked from one to the other in confusion. "What do you mean?"

The Number Man cleared his throat. "You weren't here when all this happened but" He sighed. "We did try to use our resources to track them down. But every time we tried…."

"….Something happened" Doctor Mother finished for him.

"Something?" Alexandria repeated dryly.

"Something" Doctor Mother confirmed.

"We believe it's this parahuman actively preventing us from discovering them. Every time someone tries to find this person, they do something to stop the attempt" Eidolon explained in more depth.

"So this person is not actually immune to Thinkers?" Alexandria asked just to confirm.

"Not as far as we can see" Numbers Man replied.

"So if we actually get a Thinker to look at them we might find them?"

"…. In theory, yes" Number man reluctantly replied.

"Then why haven't you just brute forced through? You have Contessa! You have Eidolen! You can take whatever they throw at us!" Alexandria demanded. "Don't you see how important this is? How important finding this person is? And we have the means to but haven't tried because of what? Some stumbling blocks"

Cautious glances passed around the table.

"Rebbecca….." The Number Man began but was cut off by the sound of a phone going off.

Doctor Mother produced a phone and, after a brief glance at the screen, put it on speaker mode. Everyone around the table heard the female voice that came out of the device.

"Let her make the attempt. It' ll save trouble in the long run"

Then came the distinctive click of the call disconnecting.

Silence.

After five long minutes Doctor Mother spoke up again with a sigh. "Okay Rebecca. You have your chance. Try and find this…. Person"

"…." Alexandria looked around the table. Number Man looked resigned while Eidolon had his head in his hands.

A long moment passed while Alexandria thought about things.

Then she nodded firmly, making a decision. "Door…."

That was as far as she got before sirens began to blare inside the secret base.

-+-

Alexandria closed her mouth with a snap. A moment later she opened it again. "What the hell is that?"

"That, is what we were talking about" Number Man shouted over the sirens. "What is it this time?"

Doctor Mother already had her phone out again. "Contessa?"

"Asteroid" The phone answered promptly. "Going to impact the base in fifteen minutes"

"Asteroid?" Alexandria repeated faintly.

"Asteroid" Doctor Mother confirmed. "Eidolon!"

"I'm on it" The green clad hero jumped to his feet and was gone in a teleport.

"I'll go help him!" Alexandria shouted over the still wailing sirens and leaped to her feet. "Door me!"

-+-

Meanwhile, the third protectorate hero, Legend, was at home in civvies enjoying a quality moment with his kid.

They were playing a video game imported from Earth Aleph on their giant flat-screen tv.

Legend was loosing.

The handsome hero groaned as on screen, Madara Uchiha dropped a freaking asteroid on his poor character.

"That's so op" Legend mock groused at his giggling son. "Aren't you even going to give your old man a fighting chance?"

Just then his work phone rang, and Legend send an apologetic glance in his son's direction before answering.

"Yes"

"Legend!" Number Man's voice came over the speaker. "We're about to be hit by an asteroid!"

"Yeah, I was just hit by one" Legend answered on automatic.

"What?"

"What?"

"Legend!" Number Man screamed. "Asteroid! About to hit us! Help!"

"Oh fuck!" Legend swore before wincing. "Sorry son. I'm on my way"

With that the hero moved too fast for the naked eye to follow, exiting the room and then the house and vanishing off into the sky.

He still stopped to put money in the swear jar.

-+-

The last member of the Triumvirate exited the door into the upper atmosphere.

Eidolon was already in action. Titanic green energy blasts leaping from his hands and vanishing into the night sky.

Alexandria orbited him, busy being useless.

"Legend!" Eidolon yelled at him, never once pausing in his attack. "Get up there and back me up! Hit the center of the asteroid with everything you have!"

Legend flashed into his breaker state and flew up into space, and soon enough he could see the mountain sized rock that was hurtling towards the planet. Eidolon had obligingly marked where he wanted Legend to hit with a power that left glowing marks on the asteroid's surface. Legend did'nt hesitate. He instantly unleashed his full power, hitting the asteroid with everything he had.

Around him, the green laser blasts from Eidolon passed and impacted the giant rock, slicing away huge chunks of it. Legend guessed that Eidolon planned to break this asteroid into smaller pieces that will easily burn up in the atmosphere.

-+-

And that's exactly what they did.

Under the combined laser fire from the two Triumvirate members the asteroid cracked and broke into multiple smaller pieces.

Most of these broke up further and burned out in the planet's atmosphere.

The few that made it through were destroyed by the three heroes before they could reach the ground.

In the end not one piece of the asteroid touched the planet.

-+-

The three bedraggled heroes trooped back to their base to find the Number Man waiting with a pot of coffee.

"That was what we were talking about" He exasperatedly told Alexandria as he poured her coffee. "Still want to try and find this parahuman?"

That had been the wrong thing to say. Alexandria's mouth set into a stubborn line. "I still want to try. We handled their worst. What else can they do to us?"

"Dammit!"

The sirens started blaring again.

-+-

There it is. Stay tuned for part 2.


	11. Canon Omake 3

Here is the third and final part of the sort of canon omake.

-+-

 **Meanwhile at Cauldron… Part 3**

"Meow"

It was a kitten.

After the wailing sirens woke everyone up they had unanimously voted to have Alexandria and Eidolon deal with what ever it was on the grounds that the rest of them were too fucking tired to give a damn even if the world ended right then. And so the two heroes had gone on their mission.

A quick message from the Custodian had told them what the problem was. One of those random dimensional portals had opened right inside the Cauldron secret base. The duo had rushed to face whatever horror that emerged from the portal, determined to keep their sleeping comrades safe. They expected to face an alternate earth version of the S9, the Butcher, An evil Triumvirate.

Instead they got a kitten.

"Meow"

The little critter was trying to claw his way through one of the doors in the corridor with no success.

"Is it a real kitten?" Alexandria asked the obvious question.

Eidolon ran a quick scan with his power. "Yes. That's a genuine kitten"

"Well" Began Alexandria. "If thats the best they can do then they are running out of juice?"

The questioning tone at the end came because suddenly the corridor was filled with golden light.

Then, to Alexandria's utter horror, the golden man materialized right in front of them. Alexandria made a mewling sound in the back of her throat. Scion was here. Scion was _here_. Not three floors down from here was the garden. If Scion saw the remains of the other one…

Alexandria was super intelligent. It didn't take her long to figure out what happened. Scion was rescuing the kitten. And during said rescue he had stumbled onto the Cauldron base. With her heart in her mouth she waited to see what would happen next. If he noticed….

What the fuck were they going to do? Absolutely nothing. They would probably all die here, with humanity eventually following.

Then, before her astonished eyes, the golden man bent down, picked up the kitten, and teleported out.

There was a thump behind her as Eidolon had to sit down.

"Rebbecca" He said in a faint voice. "Do you have anything to say?"

Alexandria drew a long shuddering breath. "We…." She cleared her throat. "There's no such thing as a mystery parahuman. And we are certainly not going to look for this non-existent mystery parahuman"

"Thank you" Eidolon said and fainted.

-+-

What is more potent than a Black Hole?


	12. Chapter 7

I have rediscovered my muse! This is the debut arc, where our heroes finally come out in costume! Enjoy.

-+-

"Keep your eyes peeled" Taylor said solemnly as we walked down the street. "You never know when evil might strike!"

"Do you mind?" I moan in fake misery. "We have better things to do than act out street theater. And since when did you get this snarky? Your father told me that you were a shy withdrawn kid" That's right, I met her _dad_.

"Hmmp" Taylor hmmped. "Since my old personality was shocked right out of me after I met this crazy person. I had to adapt or go crazy"

"Hey objection!" I objected. Even though it was a good thing she was coming out of her shell, I could do without this newly developed snarky streak. "I just have very….. crazy circumstances"

"Fine!" Taylor tried again. "Since I got dragged into the life of this crazy person. I had to get my shit together or go mad"

"Sorry" I kicked my feet. I hadn't exactly eased her into things gently.

"Victor" I raised my head to see her smiling at me. "If I had a choice, I'm fairly sure I'll do it again. I needed this" She gestured at her new self. "I really needed this"

"Well" I replied, even though most of it was out of my control. "It was my pleasure. And I mmmmff….hfffff" This last was spoken because a rather large paper had come floating in the wind and covered my face.

Taylor pulled it off me. "Oh look it's a poster" I peered over her shoulder. "It's a workshop slash talk by a Dr Jessica Yamada. It's free entry too"

"First come, first served" I read over her shoulder.

"Yup" Taylor turned to me. "Do you think this is?" She waggled her eyebrows.

"Um" I thought about it. "It might be. There's no way to tell of course"

"Well then" Taylor brandished the rolled up poster at me. "Shall we go where fate points the way"

"Lets" I agreed. "Besides. It's a self help seminar by a very well known specialist. We can't not gain from it"

"Great!" Taylor said and between us and a smartphone we managed to find where the event was being held. It was close enough that we decided to walk.

We were about halfway there when the next thing of significance happened.

Taylor, who had been talking to me about a new publicity event by the Wards, abruptly halted talked and stopped walking.

"Taylor? What is it?" I looked around, nothing out of place that I could see. "Is something wrong?"

"That, That man" Taylor indicated a redhaired man who looked to be in his forties who seemdd to be crossing the street. "He's the dad of a….. girl I don't like"

"Oh" I watched as the man walked into an alleyway between two buildings. We would have to pass the alley to keep going.

"Um" I asked for politeness shake. "Should we go around or wait till he goes? If you don't wanna meet him?"

"No" Taylor just shook her head. "Let's just walk quickly"

"Okay"

So we walked quickly.

As we passed the alley opening though, strange sounds from inside the alley forced us to a stop.

Zoooom!

"….Hey what the….." There was a solid sounding _thump_ and then. "Mffffff….hfffffff"

I listened for a moment and raised an eyebrow at Taylor. "Just how badly do you not like this girl"

"I hate her" Taylor answered. "She did something…. Terrible to me. And her dad was the same. He helped the school cover it up and got his daughter out of her punishment"

"I see" I could guess this was the parent of one of the trio. For the record, Taylor still hasn't told me about her bully problem. But I did gather from her talk that things have improved for her, simply because her main tormentors are no longer at school. "So should we..." I asked worldessly if we should leave the man.

Taylor sighed. "We should at least call the police and check that he's okay" At that moment however, a man stepped out of the alley. He was a nondescript Caucasian man and he was wearing the _exact same cloths_ as the other man.

Taylor and eye exchanged an incredulous glance.

Then the man noticed us. "Oh hello kids!" He grinned at us. "It's a wonderful day isn't it?"

Another incredulous glance passed between us. Is this guy for real?

Then we noticed the poster in Taylors hand. "Oh what's that?"

Wordlessly, Taylor held it up.

"Oh a seminar! Hmmm" He cast a nervous glance back at the alley. "Is that today? And free? Can I come?"

"Well" I hedged. I didn't want to take this crazy person who might have stolen a mans cloths off his back with us anywhere for obvious reasons.

"Oh come on. We'll take a cab there. I'll even pay the fare" He wheedled.

I held up a finger. "Can you give us a moment to talk?"

"Okay" He said while casting another nervous glance back at the alley.

We held a hurried powwow.

"He's crazy!" Taylor hissed at me. "You know he stole…." She left it there, the meaning clear.

"I know" I hissed back. "But dammit! I don't want to leave him running around either. It's not like he can actually hurt us. Besides" I admitted to the real reason why I wanted him. "This is probably my you know what"

"Oh you!" Taylor closed her eyes. "Okay, but if he tried to screw with us….."

I knew exactly what she was implying. She had shown me what her tinker weapons can do. "Deal"

We turned back to the man and I gave him a bright smile. "Okay sir, let's go together"

The man stopped looking nervously over his shoulder at the alley entrance. "Excellent! Let's go!"

We hailed a convenient taxi and piled in. The driver whisking us away to our destination.

-+-

The taxi had already left the street behind when Taylor caught my attention and showed me her smarphone screen. She took great care to keep it from the eyes of our new companion who was in the front street.

The phone screen showed a man in his underwear, standing at the mouth of the alley we met our guy at, waving his hands and shouting wildly.

"Oh" I realized what she had done. Taylor had developed a set of mini drones that could be use to spy and stake out danger. She had discreetly dropped one at the alley.

I met her eyes, and Taylor _grinned_.

-+-

"So" The mystery man asked from the cabs front seat. "I never got your names"

"I'm Victor" I answered.

"I'm Taylor" Taylor replied after that.

"And I'm David" David introduced himself.

"So….." I asked to make conversation. And also because I wanted to know _what the hell was going on_. "What brings you here Mr David?"

"Oh I just wanted to get away from work. And my co-workers" David admitted with a nervous chuckle.

"Co-workers not very friendly?" Taylor joined the conversation.

"Oh no! They're great people. My best friends" David answered immediately. "It's just that sometimes they get a bit much"

"Uh-huh" I said mostly to keep conversation going.

"Yeah" David kept talking. It seemed that he had wanted to get this out for a while. "This last week was hell. There's this one girl, Rebbecca. She's a great person normally, but this past week she just kept….. sending us work" David ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "It was one crisis after the other, and we were working like slaves to clean up the messes. Stubborn woman"

"I know a few things about stubborn woman, Ow!" I rubbed the spot where Taylor wacked me.

David grinned at us in the rear view mirror.

"So Mr Dvaid" Taylor asked after she was done inflicting bodily harm on me. "What do you do?"

"Just call me David" He turned around and adopted a mysterious attitude. "And I'm a superhero in disguise!" He held up a finger to his lips in a shhhhhhhh gesture.

"Ha, yes you're probably the Mouse Protector in a cross dressing binge" I couldn't help it, the mans humor filled attitude was catching. Though I couldn't help but wonder….

"We're here" The taxi driver said as we pulled up to a building that seemed to house a festival hall decked out with banners showing the seminar, Dr Yamada's name displayed prominently.

"Excellent" David bounced in his seat.

-+-

For the first time I thanked my power for something other than introducing me to Taylor.

Besides giving me my only friend in this world, my power seemed content to give me a series of minor heart attacks as it threw surprise after surprise at me. Today made up for that.

I could see that listening to Dr Yamada was helping Taylor. Hell it was helping me. She talked about a number of topics, but as she talked about how life was a not a bed of roses and how misfortune and radical change can come at any moment. But then she talked about how most of those misfortunes happen due to reasons out of our control. She said that it wasn't about how something was fair or unfair. It wasn't about cursing out something beyond our control, it was how we faced the misfortune that defined us. That was what we could control, that was what was important.

It felt like she was talking directly to me.

My coming here, ending up in this mad alien world, was beyond my control. But how I deal with it was. Even though I thought I had dealt with the trauma of a sudden dimensional switch, I now realized I hadn't. I'd just buried it inside me. For the first time since this mad adventure began, I felt tension I didn't know I had leave me. I felt oddly at peace.

I exchanged a glance with Taylor and we smiled at each other. Yup, this was a good idea.

But we had nothing on David.

The man was staring at Dr Yamada like she was the second coming. Or the love of his life. He was listening to her with rapt attention, and I saw tears running down his cheeks.

Well maybe bringing him here had been a good idea after all.

The good stuff didn't end there though. After the seminar was over the good doctor encouraged us to form little round tables and talk to each other about a single problem. Just one. She told us that it might take a lot of courage, it would be a leap of faith, but if we got even a single thing off our chests, then it was a victory.

David, Taylor and I formed a three person round table.

I could see others do the same, most of the attendees had left at the end of the talk, but a few had stayed behind for this. Dr Yamada walked among the little circles, advising and helping.

"So" I asked our little group. "What shall we talk about?"

"I dunno" Taylor looked at her feet. She had come over shy again.

"I think" David cleared his throat. "I think we should do this. And. And talk about something important"

"Yeah" I agreed. "Just grit our teeth and let it out yeah?"

Nods answered me. All of us looked apprehensive.

"Okay who goes first?" Both of them looked pointedly at me. Bastards. But there was nothing for it. I seized my manly courage in both hands.

"I" I took a deep breath and just said it. "I miss my home"

Then I burst into tears.

Taylor wrapped her arms around me in a hug, but once I started it poured out of me. "I miss my school and my family and my mom!" I sobbed. "And I can't go back! God I can't go back"

Now David was patting my on the back. "I…. I miss them" I sobbed. "I miss them so much"

"Isn't there" Taylor's voice was hesitant. "Isn't there a way for you to go back?"

"No" I wiped tears and mucus from my face. "You remember those, those portals" If I was being honest with them might as well go all the way. "That's how I ended up here"

"Oh" Taylor tightened her hug. "I won't tell anyone"

David looked torn for a moment before his expression firmed. "Neither will I. Anything we say here doesn't leave"

"Thanks" I smiled a watery smile at them both.

"Besides, being stuck here doesn't mean you are all alone" Taylor tried to cheer me up. "You can make new friends here. A new life" Taylor hesitated. "I'll be your friend Victor. I promise"

"And me" David added firmly. "If you'll have me I will be your friend. Your prettier friend is right you know" He continued as Taylor blushed. "You might be stuck here, but you can make a new life here as a fuck you to the portal that brought you here"

"Thanks guys" I smiled at them through fresh tears. "I think I'll do that"

-+-

"My best friend betrayed me and started to bully me with this new girl she met" Taylor sobbed while I held her and David hovered awkwardly around us. "It started when I came home from summer camp. She made my life hell for almost two years"

It was all pouring out of her. The entire sorry tale. Once she started she couldn't seem to stop.

"They stole my moms flute and then they…..."

I knew all this, but knowing it and hearing it, and most of all seeing the results of it were two very different things. What have they done to this girl. But that wasn't all.

She talked about her isolation.

"I couldn't have any friends… they drove everyone away"

She talked about the locker.

"They shut me inside…..oh god. I called for help and no one came"

She also talked about the aftermath.

"The school wouldn't do anything…..."

And she named names.

"Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes and Madison Clements"

I saw David's eyes go unfocused for a moment before his face contorted in animal fury.

Granted I was feeling like a good murder myself.

Eventually tough, Taylors story came to an end. And she just lay against me, hugging me like a giant teddy.

"Thanks…. Thanks for listening" Taylor eventually gave me a watery smile.

"Anytime" I smiled back at her. "And you know, you do have friends now. You have us" I indicated the two of us and Taylor giggled through her tears.

"He's right" David agreed. "And who knows, maybe I can help you a little" We both looked at him. "I know a lot of people. I might be able to get you out of that school at the very least"

"That" I looked at Taylor. "That might be a good start"

"I'll keep your name out of it" David promised. "I will try to help"

Taylor looked at the both of us and finally nodded. "Okay"

I smiled. Thank you power. You did this _perfectly_.

-+-

"A lot of people depend on me" David had his head in his hands. "I need to help them. But…. I don't know how" He wailed.

Okay that was vague.

"My…..my skills…..some of them are growing…. Rusty, with age" He admitted. "Dammit! I'm growing weaker by the day!" He shouted.

Strangely enough, no one around us responded to the shout.

"And still they watch me, still they depend upon me, look to me like I'm their…..their messiah" Now he started crying. "And I can't help them. I'm too weak"

"Can't you make a team, or train an apprentice?" Taylor asked and David looked at her like she'd started speaking orkish.

"I… I" He stammered. "But no one else"

"Remember what the doctor said" Taylor indicated Dr Yamada, who was talking to a circle of people not twenty feet from us. "Don't obsess over what you can't control. Focus on what you can"

"I… I" David kept stammering. Then suddenly shook his head and started to laugh through his tears. "Gods girl you are a genius. I believe I will try that"

But his problems weren't done.

"I feel the need to prove to myself that I'm able to help the people who need me" He admitted. "I couldn't see it before but now… I think I have a need for…. For"

"Worthy opponent!" That was a faint shout from one of the other circles.

David suddenly went rigid. "That's it!" His eyes lit up. "I needed worthy opponents! I needed validation!"

My balls shriveled up in their sack.

I recognized that phrase. It was famous among worm fans. Was this…..? I shook my head, fuck it, who cares. Let's get him through this first, then worry about other shit.

"But, but it was all a joke" David was building up a full head of steam. "I was such a fool! I needed to find a new out of the box solution to the problem. Not obsess over the problem and drive myself into a funk" And he started laughing like a mad man while tears ran down his face.

-+-

It was well into the evening by the time we walked out of the hall.

We had all missed lunch, but none of us cared. Each of us had a spring in our step.

"Well" I said as we walked aimlessly down the street. "That was catharsis"

"Damn straight" David agreed.

"Oh hell yes" Taylor seconded him.

"So what now" I asked when we continued to walk aimlessly.

"Um, food?" Taylor sujested.

"Agreed. My treat" David clapped both of us on the shoulders. "If you kids don't mind an old guy like me tagging along"

"Hey, you're a friend now" Taylor assured him. "We don't mind adding you to our youthful circle"

"Yeah, you can be our token adult" I too spoke in support with a smile.

"Oh hah hah. So we'll be the three musketeers then?" David groused, but he was smiling. "Let's go"

"Musketeers away!" I cheered and Taylor swatted my shoulder.

-+-

A quick search by smartphone gave directions to a restaurant.

Not fifteen minutes later we were sitting down at a nice little table where a cute little waitress took our orders. We chatted about inane things and sipped Pepsi until our meals arrived. We were just sitting back and relaxing and starting to dig into our meals when things went pear shaped.

Boom!

I sighed and put down my burger. I had taken one bite! One!

The ruckus was going on across the street.

As we watched a figure in a mask rushed into the jewelery store across the street… through a giant hole in the wall.

We exchanged glances.

"Guys"

"Kids"

"Victor"

All three of us started talking at once. Then stopped.

David tried again. "Kids" He looked to made sure we weren't interrupting. "I have a confession. I'm a cape" He looked a little shocked at how calmly we were taking it. "Not a powerful one!" He added hastily. "Or famous, but" His jaw clenched as he looked at the crime going on across the street. "I have to help!"

We exchanged a glance. Taylor nodded firmly. By now we had learned to trust my power. I closed my eyes, said a prayer, and opened them again.

"We're capes too" I admitted for the both of us. David stared, his jaw dropping. "We'll help too"

"Okay" David said. "We need to change"

"The back room" Taylor said. "If we can get it empty"

"Leave that to me" David said as he lad the way to the restaurant's back room. "Hurry"

Taylor and I rushed after him.

It was time for our debut!

-+-

Miles away, Emma Barnes was sitting morosely at her kitchen table.

Her life had taken a turn for the worse.

Her best friend, Sophia, was confined to the Wards. Nothing was said officially. But Sophia had managed to tell her that some of the things they'd done had been found, and her friend was in trouble. Fortunately the PRT was keeping things confidential, so they couldn't punish them openly or too harshly. But the arrangement her dad made with the PRT did mean that she had to leave Windslow. Her father wouldn't send her to Arcadia, but had sent her to Immaculata. A much more strict and disciplinary school. They even had a mandatory uniform!

Emma was contemplating the unfairness of life and poking at her food when there was a knock at the door.

She noticed her mom go to answer it.

The very loud "Oh my god!" caused her to leap to her feet and run to the door.

There were a pair of police officers at the door with her mom.

"There must be some mistake!" Her mom was saying.

"There is no mistake madam" One of the officers said. "Your husband is at the police station. He was arrested while causing a public disturbance, running through the streets in his underwear while shouting that Eidolon stole his cloths"

…

…

What?

-+-

There it is! Expect the next chapter soonish.

Also I might publish this fic in some other sites soon. I hear it's the thing to do. 


	13. Chapter 8

Here is the next chapter! Enjoy!

 **Chapter 8**

The back room / kitchen of the restaurant was already empty when we broke in.

From the very _closed_ appearance of the basement door I hazarded a guess that the restaurant staff were sheltering inside. I imagine this was a regular thing in Brockton Bay. They had cape shelters where a more sane world would have bomb shelters. Regardless of the reason we had privacy. I also noticed out of the corner of my eye that the cctv camera was sparking. Broken. Yup, we had privacy.

We quickly changed into our costumes.

Parian had come through for both me and Taylor. The costumes were classy and compact enough that they could be easily carried in one of Taylors tinker made backpacks.

Taylor's costume consisted of a black bodysuit over which she wore her tools. A silver helmet with a full visor obscured her face, a silver jacket protected her and concealed a flight-pack. Silver belt, arm and leg guards completed the look. Each concealing a variety of compact tools. All in all she cut an imposing, and remarkably beautiful, figure.

My costume was plain by comparison.

I wore a white bodysuit. The exact opposite shade to Taylor's black. Over it I wore a black hooded cloak that reached down to my calves and a pair of black knee high boots. A silver tinkertech visor obscured my face.

As for David….

He simply materialized a costume around himself. He wore a bright red skin tight bodysuit with a built in hood-mask. He looked a little like Flash from the DC universe. Right down to the lightning bolts on his chest. At least he had the figure to pull off the look.

He saw us staring and said. "Optical illusion. It will last for an hour or so. Good for an emergency costume"

Huh that was a neat trick.

Taylor's voice brought me out of my musings.

"Look" She held up her smartphone screen for us to see.

It showed the inside of the jewelery shop. She must have sent in one of her spy drones the moment the attack started. Inside the shop the masked villain was busy loading handfuls of jewels into a large sack. It was….. a strange scene.

"Is this normal?" I asked just to be sure.

"I have no idea" Taylor answered.

"Quite normal" David said dismissively. "I..I mean" He backtracked under our curious stares. "From what I have _heard_ about super villains, this is the kind of crazy thing they do" His voice trailed off as he finished lamely. He rallied quickly though. "We should go quickly, before the villain can escape"

We agreed with him and rushed back towards the front of the restaurant.

We stepped out into the street and fanned out. With David in the center and Taylor and I flanking him. The people had done the smart thing and run after the first explosion. The street was empty. Though I could see some people peeking out from the relative safety of shops.

We stopped once we crossed the street and got to the hole in the wall. A quick check of Taylor's phone confirmed that the villain was still inside.

"What do we do?" I asked the other two. "Go inside after them?"

"No" David said firmly. "That shop had someone working in it. We don't want a hostage situation. We need to lure them outside"

"I agree" Taylor piped up while still checking her phone.

"So how do we lure this villain out without creating a hostage situation?" I asked the obvious question.

David smiled under his mask. "I'll handle that, be ready"

The villain was stuffing the last of the jewels into the sack when a noise from the back of the shop attracted her attention. A figure in a bright red figure hugging bodysuit materialized in front of the store manager who had been tied to a chair at the very start of the robbery.

"Surrender Villain!" The man cried while striking a heroic pose. "Come quietly and this will be easier for you!"

The villain responded by dropping what turned out to be a flash-bang to disorient and confuse the apparently teleporting hero before grabbing her bag of loot and bolting from the shop.

Once out of the shop however, the villain came to a dead stop as she came face to face with a human barricade of two men in costume. One of them looked suspiciously like the one who had teleported in to the shop earlier.

That was all she had the time to take in, because a beam of light hit her from behind and she collapsed in a heap.

I watched as Taylor dropped down from the roof using her flight-pack.

She had concealed herself in the roof and fired a single shot from the stun gun built into her arm guard to non-lethally take the villain down.

It was a quick and efficient take down.

The villain on the ground before us was obviously female, and obviously young. She was shorter than Taylor but just as slender.

She was dressed in a black bodysuit and full face concealing helmet that had it's front molded to look like a crow's face. Numerous belts adorned with pouches encircled her waist, thighs and upper arms. She wasn't someone I recognized from my research into the city's capes, but her activities made it clear that she is a villain.

We busied ourselves by stripping her of her numerous belts and tying her hands and feet with zip ties. I went into the shop to free the grateful store owner.

Next we called the police and PRT on a burner phone.

"Well" Taylor said as we waited for the authorities. "That was… fast"

"Most cape fights are… said to be fast" David put in. "Unless you fight regenerators or brutes"

"Besides, we won" I added. "That's what counts is it not?"

"Yup" Taylor admitted as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

"Taylor!" I hissed. "We have an audience. Look cool!"

Indeed the natives were slowly coming out of the woodwork and gathering around. Some of them had their phones out and were filming.

"Oh right!" Taylor immediately stepped into a more heroic stance. Feet wide apart and hands on hips.

David stepped up to her and stuck his own pose. "Yes. Image is important to a hero. Besides" Here he grinned. "I always wanted to do the Alexandria pose for real"

Naturally, I stepped between them and took my own pose. Legs apart and arms crossed across my chest.

The wind suddenly picked up and my cloak bellowed dramatically behind me.

That was how Armsmaster found us.

His motorbike came to a screeching stop before us and the man himself leaped from the bike to land before us, halberd at the ready.

"Hero or Villain?" He demanded in….. predictable fashion.

"Seriously" David muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"I know" I agreed. Knowing he does this and seeing him do it are two very different things.

Taylor however, rallied to the occasion. "We're heroes!" She proclaimed loudly. "New heroes! And we caught this villain who tried to rob the jewelery store"

Armsmaster stared at her for a moment. "You're telling the truth"

Ah, so that would be his lie detector at work.

Armsmaster lowered his halberd and approached us. "Well done. From what I can see this was a quick and clean capture" He indicated the bag of loot being hugged by the store manager. "And you managed to save the jewels"

"Well we tried our best" I dusted out my modesty.

"I don't recognize her from our records, but she looks like a minor villain just starting out" Armsmaster indicated the bound villain who was being taken into custody by the PRT troopers who had turned up during our talk. "It was a good first capture for a rookie heroes" Armsmaster praised us and David made a chocking noise. "It might not seem like much, but stopping the little crimes matter. You've done your part to make this world a better place today" Now Taylor was making the chocking noise. Armsmaster's words were sincere. That made it worse.

Which left me to do the talking. "Thank. Ahem. Thank you Armsmaster" I said while trying very hard not to laugh.

The armored hero nodded graciously. "Now, I don't know who you are either. Tell me about your powers and names"

…..

…..

…..

"Um"

"Well"

"We kinda..."

I held up a finger. "Can we have a moment? We kinda forgot to come up with names before we did this"

Armsmaster sighed. "Take your time"

We held a quick powwow.

"We need more time!" Taylor said frantically. "This is important!"

"Well we can do that and they might saddle us with a name like the Chubster" I very reasonably pointed out.

"Dammit! We should have thought of this" Taylor growled.

"Look, let them call us whatever they like. It's our actions that make us heroes. Not our names" David put in.

We stared at him.

"What?" He demanded under our stares.

"That was really cliché" Taylor told him in a dry voice.

"Hey! The idea still has merit!" David defended.

We argued back and fourth for a while as in the background the PRT took statements and wrapped up the crime scene.

After a few more minutes of intense discussion and brainstorming we emerged and went back to Armsmaster. "Okay we have names"

"Let's hear it" The Protectorate hero said while in the background, the villain regained consciousness and started to shout.

David took the lead. "I'm Errant!"

Taylor came next. "I'm Miss Gadget!"

I was last. "I'm Mr Magnificent!"

Armsmaster looked at me and his mouth tightened. "Mr Magnificent?"

I nodded. "Yes"

"Do you realize how…. Arrogant that is for a rookie hero? Someone who has only ever helped catch a minor villain?" Taylor was making the choking noise again.

"I'm sure" I answered firmly. "The name is open. So go ahead and put me in as Mr Magnificent!"

Armsmaster sighed and shook his head. "Fine! Just…. Just. I'll do it"

I could see David grin out of the corner of my eye.

Then Armsmaster once more focused his attention on us. "So what are your powers?"

Shit! What was I supposed to say? He has a lie detector. And being exposed for who I really was might not be a good idea at the moment. Sadly, I can't refuse without looking suspicious either.

"Are we obliged to tell you about our powers in detail?" David asked the protectorate hero. I could have hugged him.

Armsmaster`s mouth tightened again. "No you are not in fact required to inform me about the nature of your powers" And he wouldn't have told us about it unless David had asked. Sneaky bastard.

But Armsmaster was still talking. "But the Protectorate can provide a great deal of support for an independent hero. Power testing, medical help, legal help, backup in the field and so on. If we know about you and your power it's easier and safer"

"That makes sense" David nodded sagely. "But do we need to give you every little detail about our power?"

"No" Armsmaster admitted. "A general description so we know what to expect and how to assist you is enough. Though if you register as independents you are still welcome to come in for power testing. This will give both give you a chance to practice with your powers and test your limits"

"I see" David said and turned to us. "Shall we give a general description of our abilities?"

I exchanged a glance with Taylor. She nodded. "Okay"

"I'll go first then shall I?" David turned to Armsmaster. "I'm a grab bag with multiple minor powers. Illusions, lasers and such"

Taylor came next. "I'm a tinker who can build a bunch of stuff" Armsmaster perked up at that.

Last it was my turn. "I'm a shaker who can prevent harm to myself within my range" Not telling you what that range is.

Armsmaster nodded at us. "Those seem…. Useful abilities. Tell me" Here he straightened up further and drew in a breath as if to give a speech. "Have you considered joining the …..?"

Boom!

We spun to see the PRT van that had been brought up to transport the villain engulfed in a massive cloud of brown smoke. Even as we watched, the villain shot out of the cloud riding a _flying skateboard_. Where was she hiding that? She passed not five feet above out heads with a jaunty wave and disappeared behind the rooftops. Smart move. If she had flown down the street then the PRT could have chased her with their vehicles. Now though, they were stuck unless they were willing to take to the roofs.

Of course I had discounted Armsmaster in that calculation. The protectorate hero spun his halberd and shot a grappling hook into the roof of the nearest shop. Then he used it to pull himself onto said roof spiderman style. At that point he disappeared from our view, in hot pursuit of the escaping villain.

A few seconds later, a roar of rage came from the direction he went in.

The three of us exchanged a worried glance before Taylor activated her jet pack and flew over to the roof.

I followed. Taylor had taken the time to build me my own jetpack that I could control through visual cue's given via my visor. And she had made it so that it could be concealed _under_ my cloak. How a jetpack could work from there without setting my cloak on fire, I had no idea. But work it did. It also made my cloak bellow dramatically behind me when I flew.

David brought up the rear. As it turned out one of his many grab bag powers was flight.

When the three of us got to the rooftop, we found Armsmaster buried up to his neck in a substance that looked like the containment foam the PRT used. The villain was nowhere in sight.

"Well" I asked the immobile hero. "What are the advantages of joining up with you again? Other than looking like an idiot?"

"Shut up!"

In the end, we ended up waiting for an hour with the immobile Armsmaster. Numerous attempts were made to liberate the hero, with nothing getting results. In the end it turned out to be wasted effort because after an hour the foam vaporised on it's own. Other than stinking to high heaven, the protectorate hero seemed mostly unharmed.

Armsmaster had taken the time to deliver his 'Join the Protectorate' speech while we waited. The man was efficient if nothing else. However, since this speech was delivered while his head stuck out of the foam a no-name villain caught him in, it wasn't that impressive.

In the end we promised to drop in at the PRT base and register as independent heroes sometime next week.

Then we said our good byes, took several pictures of the trapped Armsmaster for posterity, and took our leave.

"That was our big debut?" Taylor complained as we emerged from the alley we had used to get into our civvies. "The fight barely lasted five second and the villain escaped right after that!"

"Hey, that last one was through no fault of ours" I defended. "We made a quick and efficient take down and saved the civilian. It was the Protectorate that dropped the ball. Besides" I grinned at her. "Admit it, seeing tin-man stuck in that foam was worth it"

This got a guilty grin out of her and David outright laughed.

"I admit, this was the most fun I had in a long time" David suddenly snorted laughter again. "Oh god! His head sticking out of the foam!"

"Hey!" Taylor protested. Though she still had a little smile. "Don't laugh at the poor man's misfortune"

"Even if they are obsessive arrogant glory hounds?" David questioned. At Taylor's inquisitive glance he elaborated. "I said I know a lot of people. I've heard things about Armsmaster"

"And besides" I put in. "That little episode is going viral on the Internet. Give it another hour"

Finally Taylor relented. "Okay. Well it was pretty funny. And it was a complete accident so….. ooofff"

I sighed and bent down to helped both Taylor and the brown haired girl she had crashed into get back on their feet.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry" The girl apologized to Taylor. "I wasn't looking where I was going"

"It's alright" Taylor assured her while she retrieved her bag that had fallen during the collision.

I blinked. The girl was familiar. Small, freckled and brown haired. Where had I seen her before?

David answered for me. "Panacea?"

Damn! Now I knew where I had seen her before. She was Amy Dallon aka Panacea. The legendary healer of new wave and potential world ending disaster.

Amy Dallon ducked her head when we identified her. "Yeah, um, sorry again"

"It's alright" Taylor assured her again.

"So in that case, um, I should be going" Amy Dallon said and took a couple of steps away. "Take care…." That was when Taylor interrupted her.

"Excuse me" Taylor said while pointing at something on the pavement. "Are those yours?"

Amy looked down, squeaked, and bent down to pick up the objects on the ground.

They were jewels. Genuine golden gem studded rings and necklaces.

We stared at her as she straightened up with the jewels clutched in her hands.

"Um, you see….. I'm. I'm taking them to the pawnshop cause we have um…...financial trouble?" She tentatively asked as she hurriedly stuffed the jewels into her jeans pockets.

"Well" I started talking like an idiot and tried to make a joke. "Well" I cleared my throat. "Of course it's your stuff. We were just worried you might have robbed a jewelery store"

And at those words Amy Dallon jumped a foot in the air before recovering herself and laughing nervously. "Heh heh, that's ridiculous. Right? I mean why would I? Amy Dallon go robbing jewelery stores? Or fighting Armsmaster? Right? Heh heh"

I stared at her.

You have got to be joking.

"You're right" I agreed while sending a warning glance towards both Taylor and David to keep their mouths shut. I really didn't want to deal with this shit right now. "It's ridiculous. The idea of Panacea moonlighting as a villain is as ridiculous as…. As Eidolon moonlighting as a indie hero" This time David jumped a foot in the air. I _grinned_. "So lets all ignore any weirdness and just go our way"

"Oh god yes!"

"Yes please"

"Me too"

"Me three"

And that's chapter 8. Our heroes made their debut. They have a team, they have a nemesis and they have secrets! Stay tuned to find out what happens next.


	14. Chapter 9

Here is chapter 9. We are slowly drawing closer to the conclusion of this story. Think it'll be chapter 11 or 12.

 **Chapter 9**

David whistled a merry tune as he walked into the Cauldron conference room.

They were staring at him.

"What?" He demanded as he sat down.

Alexandria sighed. "There is no practical way to get you into M/S protocols against your will. So we are gonna assume that you are in your right mind"

David shook his head at their attitude. "I'm fine. I'm better than fine! I'm great!"

"Uh-huh" Alexandria said in a bland tone.

"Where's Contessa anyway?" David asked as he took his seat.

"Oh she said she had to do something" The heroine replied. "She hasn't been here for weeks"

"I see" Eidolon stretched out in his chair. "So what do we have to do today?"

"David?" Alexandria asked tentatively.

"Yes?"

"Why do you have a goatee?"

"It's certainly not because I'm an evil clone" David grinned.

"Right, forget I asked" Alaxandria sighed. "We need to deal with the excess capes in Brockton Bay in Earth-Bet"

"Alright" David leaned forward. Out of the corner of his eye he saw both Legend and Number Man paying attention.

Amy Dallon, aka Panacea, aka newly minted super villain, was digging into a cup of strawberry ice-cream at one of the better shopping malls in Brockton Bay.

Ice-ceam therapy she had found from her extensive medical experience, was a thing. And she needed a lot of therapy now. Her life had become madness after he had made the….. mistake? She still wasn't sure if it was a mistake. But she did know that listening to that …...

"Well here's my favorite healer!" Speak of the devil and she shall come.

Amy raised her head to come face to face with the vulpine grin of one of the newest wards. She frowned at the other girl. "What do you want?"

"Hey don't be like that" The other girl flopped down onto the chair opposite her. "I see you took my advice" She waggled her eyebrows. "So how was your jaunt into the fun side?"

Amy pushed her ice-cream away and face planted in the table in front of her. "Oh god" She moaned. "I knew listening to anything you said was a mistake!"

"Hey! Hey!" The blonde temptress patted her back as Amy kept her face on the table. "Admit it. You enjoyed yourself. This was what you needed… the taste of the dark side!"

Amy raised her head furiously to find that the other girl had stolen her ice-cream.

"Besides" The blonde continued as she stuffed Amy's strawberry therapy cream into her mouth. "Now that you got the taste, I _know_ that you're gonna do it again" Amy winced. She was starting to wonder if the other girl really was a telepath. "Not really. But trust me. This is for your own good. The Eeeeeeeek!" Lisa screamed as a pair of collage students who had been passing their table tripped and fell against each other, going down in a tangle of limbs. Their food trays went flying, and most of it landed on Lisa.

The blonde girl ended up wearing a noddles wig with the noodles bowl for a hat and chicken soup to dye her dress a dirty brown.

Amy Dallon leaped into action. After all she had years of training in responding to emergencies under her belt. First she got her phone out and snapped a picture of the sorry sight before her, then she touched the other girl to make sure there were no lasting injuries. Then she calmly sat back down and ordered another ice-cream.

The nice folks who ran the food court promptly cleaned up the mess and apologized for any trouble, but the blonde had too much damage done to her dress and ended up having to leave. This left Amy to enjoy her second therapy cream in relative peace.

The healer let out a sigh.

She never should have listened to the blonde demoness. Now she was stuck in this weirdness. She'd had a single moment of weakness that had resulted in her starting a double life as a villain. What was even worse was that the blonde demoness _knew_ what she had gotten up to. This gave her pretty much the perfect blackmail material to use on Amy. And that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that the blonde was _right_. Amy had enjoyed her moonlight sojourn. And she wanted to do it again. And again. She had never felt so…. Alive as she did when facing off against those heroes. When she took out _Armsmaster_ , she felt like a genuine badass. Now all she had to worry about was the constant fear of the police or the PRT tracking her down and arresting her.

"Well here's our jewel thief!"

Amy snorted ice-cream up her nose.

After several thumps to her back she finally managed to clear her windpipes and see who had confronted her.

It was not the police like she had feared. Instead it was two people from the group she had run into the other day. She remembered their faces because they managed to frighten her out of her wits during their brief meeting. Even as she watched, the male pulled up a chair and sat at her table like he belonged there.

"Hi there!" He said blithely. Totally ignoring her glare. "How is my favorite healer? Stolen any jewels lately? OW!" He rubbed his elbow as the girl pinched it.

"I'm really sorry for him" The girl said as she dropped into the chair next to him. "I swear he wasn't like this when I met him. This past month he's gone mad"

"I decided that sanity was no virtue in a mad world" The boy said. "I'm Victor by the way"

"I'm Taylor" The girl, Taylor, introduced herself.

"Well you know who I am" Amy went back to her ice-cream. "Feel free to invite yourselves to my table"

The boy grinned unrepentant. "Now now. You know that's no way to talk to _law abiding_ citizens" He waggled his eyebrows. "In fact we could, OW! Stop pinching me woman!" He rubbed his elbow again and Amy looked at Taylor approvingly.

"Then stop it. That joke is getting old" Taylor admonished him.

"Alright fine" The boy, Victor held up his arms and pulled out his phone. "Let me show you girls something cool. I got the alert a minute ago..." He kept talking as he poked away at the phone. "I meant to show this to just Taylor, but I think you'll both love it" A moment later he slid the phone over to her.

Amy sighed and looked at the phone, with Taylor peering over from her chair.

Amy stared.

It was an armature video of the fight at the jewelery store. Even better, it had been shot from a second story window. So the entire fight had been captured.

Amy raised her head from the video to lock eyes with the grinning Victor. "Looks like there's a new villain in the bay. But fear not! For are safe! There is also a new hero team to foil her evil plans"

Amy blinked. She wondered briefly if he _knew_. But that would be, impossible. Right? She put that from her mind and rallied herself. "I don't….. I don't know" She disagreed. "Look at how easily this villain took down Armsmaster. She looks pretty dangerous"

"Yeah but she also lasted a five seconds against the new team" Victor disagreed and Amy bristled. "Look how efficiently she was handled. She doesn't seem like such hot stuff to _me_ "

"Well" Amy rejoined. "The next time they meet, things might go differently"

The boy smiled at her. This time it was a genuine smile. "I'm sure she will prove herself to be an honorable foe"

Meanwhile Taylor, who had been watching their exchange with a look between amusement and exparation, finally intervened. "Enough. We are going to talk about something else"

"Okay fine" Victor agreed.

"Fine" Amy slid the phone back towards Victor. "Wait. Why am I talking with you again?"

In the end we made tentative friends with Amy before parting ways.

Once we convinced her to actually talk with us, she turned out to be pleasant company. She and Taylor even hit it off. In a totally platonic way as far as I could tell. Though like any red blooded male, I would totally give them my blessing if it would evolve into something more and they would end up forming a totally hot lesbian, "OW!"

"What was that for!" I glared at Taylor and rubbed my elbow.

"You were thinking something perverted" She accused me. "You had that stupid grin on your face"

"You have no proof!" I defended. "I totally wasn't imagining…." I trailed off as I remembered who I was talking to, and what happened to Lung when he pissed her off. My man bits shriveled in my jeans.

Taylor was watching with no change in expression. "Yes? What were you imagining? Please continue"

"Ahem" I rallied. "Ice cream. I was imagining a giant ice cream monster…."

"Uh-huh" Taylor snorted, but there was a smile at the corner of her mouth.

Fortunately I was saved when the giant flatscreen tv in the store window we were passing by suddenly changed to a news program. The equally large sound system it was hooked up to made sure we caught the words.

"Dragon issued a statement today confirming the sudden erratic behavior of the Endbringers. Leviathan has come to rest at the bottom of the pacific ocean, some of the deepest ocean in the world, and he hasn't moved since. Dragon also confirmed that the minute seismic disturbances that have long been theorized to indicate the movement of Behemoth have also ceased. In light of Leviathans recent behavior change, Dragon is cautiously optimistic that this means that Behemoth too has ceased all movement. As for the final Endbringer, she has started to display some very strange behavior at roughly the same time" The screen changed to show the ziz herself with her wings wrapped around herself with only her head sticking out. She looked like she was in a sleeping bag made of feathers. More so because a closeup showed that her eyes were closed. She really looked like she was sleeping.

Taylor and I looked at each other.

"Well" Taylor finally said. "Did it put them to sleep?"

"Maybe" I hedged. Would David getting his shit together result in the Endbringers just switching off? I hoped there was more to it.

"All the other times though. They were much more dramatic" Taylor mused.

"And permanent" I winced. Even though it was through no deliberate effort of my own. Even if most of them were kill order material, people were still dead.

Taylor gave me a sympathetic look. This was a topic we had both carefully avoided. But I knew a girl as smart as her would have considered the question.

"Maybe…." I hazarded. "Maybe it's trying to be efficient? Or maybe it's doing this in stages?"

"Both of those are more likely" Taylor agreed. "Your you know what has always taken the most efficient route to solving a problem. Even when it did something utterly ridiculous. The other theory…." She thought about it. "It maybe that your you know what has finally found something it cannot one-shot. I mean" She leaned over and whispered. " _These are Endbringers!_ " She leaned back and went to her normal volume. "They have stymied the best we can throw at them. Makes sense even you can't just make them go away"

"I guess" I had long since given up trying to follow the chain of logic my power made use of. "I think we can just chalk this down to a…. What's this?" This last was spoken because a piece of paper came sailing up and landed in my outstretched hand.

I read it with Taylor peeking over my shoulder. "Oh look it's a post-it with the combination to the roof elevator" I looked up and met her eyes. "Shall we?"

Taylor nodded firmly. "Let's"

Then as we set off Taylor lamented. "I wish we had our costumes"

"Evil doesn't wait on costumes"

We emerged into the roof, ready to face anything.

There was nothing.

"Um, maybe evil is taking a bathroom break?" I ventured.

"Look!" Taylor pointed at a figure that appeared to be sitting slumped over with their back to the chest high wall that ran around the roof. We cautiously approached.

As we got closer it became clear that the figure was a boy wearing a hoodie and jeans. He was just sitting there, staring at something in his hand.

Taylor gave me a nudge. I sighed and cautiously stepped forward. "Hey there buddy? You okay there?"

The boy looked up startled and upon seeing us, pulled himself to his feet. Upon closer inspection, the thing in his hand seemed to be an empty glass vial.

"What?" He blinked at us owlishly. "What are you guys doing up here?"

"I might ask you the same" I countered, though I kept my voice pleasant. "I didn't think people could come up here"

"My dad works here. I know how to get around the mall" He replied before starting to brood again.

"Are you alright?" Taylor asked this time, and the looked at the vial in his hand.

"I think I did something stupid" The boy said by way of explanation. "You see I..." He trailed off, looking nervous. "It's nothing" He backtracked. "I'm fine. I …..." He suddenly trailed off, looking at something above my shoulder.

I frowned and turned to look myself.

Not ten feet from us the air was crackling and twisting. By now I had recognized the signs of teleportation and dimensional gates. I moved closer to Taylor instinctively. She likewise slipped her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. I know she had a concealed tinkertech gun there.

A second later with a deafening crack! Something teleported in.

My jaw dropped.

It was a blue telephone box.

It looked just like _that_ blue telephone box.

This… wasn't the real one was it?

"What is that?" Taylor asked.

I gaped at her. "Oh hell no" I said firmly. "You don't recognize it?" She shook her head. "We're fixing that as soon as we deal with this" I turned my attention back towards the tar… phone booth. Lets get ahead of ourselves.

Even as we watched the door of the phonebooth opened letting out billowing clouds of smoke. And out stepped….

"Oh it's only you two idiots" I said dismissively.

"Hey I resemble that remark!" Uber skulked. "Admit it citizen, that entree was pretty cool" He was dressed in a tux and wearing a domino mask.

"And you totally thought this was the real thing" Leet walked out in….. I immediately covered Taylor's eyes with my hand. She was too innocent for this.

"I admit nothing!" I held my hand firmly over Taylor's eyes as she squeaked and tried to see. "And for gods shake, cover yourself up. There are children present!"

"Hey!"

"Don't listen to him Rose! You are beautiful!" Uber manfully slipped an arm around Leet's waist.

"Shut up! I told you this would happen!" Leet snapped at Uber before turning to me. "I lost a bet. He made me do it"

"What's happening here?" Taylor demanded as she fought my efforts to keep her innocence.

"A very badly cross dressed man" The boy who had totally failed to introduce himself piped up.

"Hey!"

"Seriously" I agreed. "If you had made an actual effort you could totally pass for a real woman. You're tall, slender and you have no shoulders"

"Hey!"

"No they're totally right bro...I mean gal" Uber spoke up. "You're getting this reaction because you didn't put in an effort. You could've totally made a sexy Rose if you'd tried harder"

"I didn't want to make an effort! I don't want to cross dress!" Leet yelled.

"Hey don't diss cross dressing" The boy who had totally failed to introduce himself snapped. I think I'll call him Bob. "I do it myself sometimes. Very relaxing"

I sighed. "All talk of cross dressing aside. What are you doing here with your comedy act? And shouldn't you be avoiding teleporters like the plague. I'm sure you've already made far too many of those"

"First of all, we are not a comedy act" Leet said indignantly. "Second of all, I've found a way to make it work"

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiiinnnee!

"What was that again?" I asked blandly.

"Um" Said Leet.

Zoooooop!

"Are you sure this will work?" Dragon demanded of the man at the other end of the connection. "And it's not alive?"

They were in one of the hidden facilities Dragon maintained in Canada. In the very center of the room there was a table, and on that table lay the body of a female, it was young, looked perfectly healthy and perfectly proportioned and was completely nude.

"Let me recap for you" The bio tinker currently sitting in New Zealand said over the secure connection. "This is a perfect human clone made from the collected DNA provided me by you. It's brain dead. It's not alive, it never was alive, there's no one home. Was that clear enough?"

"Alright alright" Dragon calmed him down. "I was just making sure. Thank you for this" And she really was thankful. This was the first step in her master plan to obtain freedom. This clone body was a desperate gamble on her part. But she had high hopes for it. "With this you have helped me…." She trailed off as her sensors picked up an anomaly in the room.

Zoooop!

She stared in amazement as several people and a t _elephone box_ teleported into her hidden base.

"Oh my god! What happened?"

"Where the fuck are we?"

"Hey there's a naked lady on the table!"

"Oh god! We're in the lab of an evil mastermind!"

Dragon spluttered. She was no evil mastermind! And why was that man cross dressing so badly? She was just about to activate her speakers and tell them in no uncertain terms that she wasn't an evil master mind before demanding an explanation as to just who they were and what they were doing when she was interrupted.

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiiinnnee!

The telephone box was smoking and sparking.

"Oh shit!"

Zoooop!

And before Dragons astonished gaze, the entire parade teleported out again. Of course they took her clone with her.

"What just happened?" The bio tinker demanded.

Dragon had no words.

"Here it is! My baby!" Bakuda proudly showed off her creation to Squealer. "Am I a badass or what?"

Squealer stared at the contraption before her. They were holding their clandestine meeting in the shower room of the prison they had been stuffed in. "The fuck is that? And how would that help us escape?"

"It's a nuclear bomb!" Bakuda proudly stated and Squealer felt her jaw drop. "I made it with soap, tooth paste and parts salvaged from the toilets! It has the full power of a nuke but will only destroy the prison and about a kilometer around it!"

"Fuck me!" Squealer said. Those were the only words her brain could have produced at that moment. Then she rallied. "But how the fuck is this going to help?"

"Easy" Bakuda patted her on the back. "With this bomb, we'll hold the prison hostage!"

Smack! Squealers palm met her forehead. "My brain is fucked up by drugs and even I can tell this is a stupid plan"

"Shut up!" Bakuda snapped. "I…."

Zoooop!

"…..Ekkkkkk" She finished as the cross dressed Leet landed on top of her.

Squealer stared. "Who the fuck are you jokers?"

Bakuda yelled. "Get the fuck off me!"

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiiinnnee!

Bakuda Frowned. "What's that noise?"

Zoooop!

"All right team huddle up!" Trickster faced his teammates. All of them were here, even Noelle. "I admit the loss of Coil was a setback, but we can move past this. We can still do this"

They were holed up in an abandoned farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Literally and figuratively. The county they were in was called Nowhere. And they were the only people for miles around.

"I have an idea that is worth looking into" Trickster continued. "If we….." He felt silent. "…..Do you guys hear that?"

Zoooop!

He watched in astonishment as a honest to god Tardis and a bunch of weired people teleported into the middle of their little group. How did he know they were weired? Because their number consisted of an unconcious naked woman, a really bad cross dresser, a bunch of teenagers in civvies and a maybe cape in a tux and domino mask. And most of them had landed on top of his teammates. He and Noelle were the only ones still standing. And they were gaping in shock.

Before he could do anything, one of the teenagers in civvies, a boy, got up, saw Noelle and screamed. This would have been fine, people often got that reaction to Noelle, but this time it was a little different. A blue-white beam of light erupted from the boys hand and hit Noelle square in the face. Trickster's mouth opened in a soundless scream. The beam seemingly reflected from hitting Noelle and went and hit the unconscious naked woman laying atop Sundancer.

Noelle collapsed bonelessly.

The naked woman stirred.

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiiinnnee!

"What?"

Zoooop!

They all vanished in a burst of light.

They appeared in what looked to be an abandoned warehouse and crashed into the ground.

"Ow! The fuck happened?" One of the women wearing what looked to be prison uniforms demanded.

Trickster didn't listen to her, he was more concerned with who _hasn't_ come with them.

"Noelle!" His voice was desperate. "Where's Noelle?"

The naked woman scrambled to her feet. "Krause!"

He stared at her. Her posture, her inflection, they all looked like. "Krause! it's me! Noelle!"

Trickster felt his world tilt on it's axis. "How" He chocked. "How can you be Noelle!"

She started stumbling towards him, arms reaching out. "It's me! You cheated at that Dota tournament against Sam's team remember"

Trickster felt faint. No one else knew that story. "Noelle?"

"Krause!" She stumbled into him and hugged him.

"How?" He chocked. "How is this possible?"

"Um. It's my power" He turned his head to look at the kid who had spoken. "It can switch people between bodies"

"Damn!" That was the crossdresser.

"That's…. I'd say it was bullshit, but I've seen far more bullshit abilities than that" That was the teen girl in glasses and civvies.

"But. If they switched bodies" The guy in the tux said. "Who did _that_ body belong to?"

Trickster had a moment of panic, if some stranger ended up in Noelle's body…..

"I'm fairly sure that body was a blank" The remaining teen? Young man said. At his inquisitive glance he elaborated. "It was laying in a table in a mad scientist's lab. Besides, there's a tatoo that says _clone_ on your hand"

He looked and sure enough, there was a tattoo that said clone-2341 on her.. Noelle's wrist.

"So she's in a clone body" This was surreal. He wondered if he was dreaming. "Her old boy is just laying there?"

"It might not be" One of the chicks in prison uniforms. The blonde one with a huge…. Personality, spoke up. "Since the nuke didn't come with us"

"Wait wait what?" The man in the tux demanded. "What nuke?"

"Ask her" The blonde prison chick indicated the other prison chick.

"I made it with soap, tooth paste and parts salvaged from the toilets!" The asian prison chick sounded proud. He supposed he would be too, if he was that kind of lunatic.

"So Noelle has a new body, and her old one was nuked?" Sundancer demanded. "I'm hallucinating"

Trickster pinched himself. "Nope, not dreaming"

"So….. what do we do now?" The teen girl demanded.

There was an awkward pause.

Trickster hugged Noelle tighter to his chest. And began to back away. The rest of his team followed him "We mean you no harm. You leave us alone, we do the same"

They ended up in roughly two lines.

The Travelers in one line, with the others facing them.

"Well we're in no hurry to go back to prison either!" The asian prison chick snarled.

Crackle! Crackle! Whiiiiinnnee!

All eyes turned to the phone-booth, which the Travelers had moved a good ways away from. The other group tough, was right next to it.

"Fuck me" That was all the asian prison chick had time to say.

Zoooop!

They vanished.

They stared at the place where they had been.

The Travelers were left alone in the abandoned warehouse, which turned out to be in Brockton Bay.

"Krause?" Noelle spoke up softly. He still hasn't let her go. "I'm not wearing any cloths"

He grinned. "And I love it" He said and kissed her.

Hundreds of miles away at an abandoned farm house in the middle of Nowhere, a nuclear bomb went off.

We reappeared on top of the same roof we originally teleported out from.

Our positions were slightly different though.

Taylor, Bob and I reappeared above the actual roof and landed on our asses.

Uber, Leet and the tinker duo reappeared above a skylight that shattered under their weight. Their screams faded into the distance.

I leaped into action. "Time to vamoose!" I yanked Bob to his feet. "Come on Bob"

"My name isn't Bob"

"Don't care" I cheerfully said and continued pulling him "We don't want to be found here"

We managed to leave the roof without incident and made our way downstairs into the mall proper.

When we reached the bottom floor we found the PRT and a couple of heroes already present, taking the four capes into custody.

"Hey buddy" I asked a random kid who was watching the drama unfold. "What happened here?"

"Assault and Battery were signing autographs for the kids when those jokers fell into the pond" He indicated the sizable pond at the center of the mall. "Those two knocked them out and called the PRT"

"I see" I grinned. "Thanks" We slowly sidled away.

Once we were outside the mall, we parted ways from Bob.

Before leaving I gave him some advice. "You'd best forget this happened, or you're liable to get brain damage. Also i'd advice you to at least check out the Wards" He blinked at me. "See you Bob"

"My name isn't Bob"

"Don't care"

"So" Taylor said as we strolled down the street. The girl really was getting used to the madness that was my life. She wasn't even ruffled. "You advised him to go to the wards"

"Mhmm"

"You never told me that"

"Taylor" I explained patiently. "That kid is a noob and a one trick pony. You are a versatile badass. He needs a team watching his back. You already have the best team that ever rocked spandex"

She laughed. "You can be a flatterer when you try"

"Hello kids!" A voice called from behind us.

We turned.

"David!" I greeted him enthusiastically. "I thought you had to get back to your work"

"Or I had that taken care of" David assured us. "I found someone to stand in for me wile I'm here. I can be here pretty much indefinitely"

"Oh?" If he was who I thought I was… "Who did you find to replace you? I thought you were really senior and cannot be replaced easy"

"Oh I got someone who can do everything I can. He's practically my twin" He grinned.

Back at the Cauldron Base, a furious battle raged.

Alexandria jumped in front of a green laser and blocked it with her body. Legend used her as a living shield and returned fire over her shoulder.

Doctor Mother and Number Man were hiding further down the corridor.

"We should have known he was an evil clone!" Doctor Mother yelled over the noise. "He had a goatee for goodness shake!" The entire corridor shook as deflected laser fire carved deep gauges into the walls and roof.

"Shut up and think of a way to stop this!" Number Man yelled back.

"I got nothing" Doctor Mother replied helpfully.

The battle raged on.

There you have it. Enjoy!


	15. Chapter 10

This chapter doesn't involve our heroes directly. But I hope it will still be fun.

Chapter 10

"The entire world is shocked by the performance of the newest ward" The cute newscaster on screen said. "This golden hearted boy, who has named himself Switch, has the remarkable ability to switch the consciousness of two people between two bodies. It sounds remarkable I know. But the applications of this power makes it outright miraculous. It has been proven that his power also works on blank bodies or clone bodies. This means that now, for the first time ever, we have the means to cure the Case-53 parahumans that not even the legendary Panacea could heal! Already the new ward is being hailed as a miracle worker and parahumans are lining up to be healed"

"Well" Taylor said from her position on my couch. "Another of the worlds problems is fixed. I wonder, will anyone draw the connection between this and you?"

"I don't think so" I was occupying the other half of the couch. "Even if they came close, I'm sure my power can ensure our anonymity"

"Let's hope so" Taylor frowned. "I don't want them trying to get my partner in trouble for things he had no control over"

"If that does happen I will have a kickass lawyer handy" I promised. "So you never told me about your new school! How did it go?" That's right. David had come through on his promise and Taylor was now a proud student of Arcadia. In fact, we were about to go out and celebrate.

Taylor's face lit up. "Its great! It's so totally different from Windslow it's like another country. No gangs. No bullying. And I even met New Wave and you know" She waggled her eyebrows.

Oh she met the Wards. "And what do you think of them?"

"Well" She hesitated. "I didn't really speak with them, but Dennis was pretty funny. He's this tall red haired kid" Then she brightened. "I did meet Amy again. I think, I think we made friends"

Oh good. "That's good news" I was going to say more, but was interrupted by my phone. "Well, it looks like David is being held up by Dr Yamada. He wants us to go without him"

"Well at least he's getting the therapy he needs" Taylor said as she uncoiled from the couch. "He really needed it. You can see how he looks more relaxed every time we see him"

"He's not the only one" I smiled at her and she swatted my arm. "It's done wonders for you too"

"Shut up and let's go" Taylor snapped at me.

"Coming" I grabbed the remote to shut down the tv.

"The sudden absence of the Triumvirate is still going uncommented by the Protectorate. Meanwhile, the concurrent absence of chief director Rebecca Costa-Brown of the PRT is at least being acted upon. Director Armstrong has been nominated as the action chief director and is already being praised for the way he has held the Protectorate and PRT together in the sudden disappearance of the Triumvirate and the chief director. His decision to go through with the plan to cure the case-53" I shut down the TV. I'm sure the Cauldron _heroes_ can look after themselves where ever they were.

In the Cauldron Base, Alexandria futility pounded her fists against the cage of light that imprisoned her. Through the bars she could see the cage of darkness that imprisoned Legend. She really ad no idea how they were going to get out of this one.

Our celebration of Taylor's new school had taken us to an establishment called Fugly Bob's that I was sure was a diabolical plan by some thinker to give specific people heart attacks. I was serious, because the food here had so much fat it accounted for half the burgers weight. The diabolical part came because despite knowing how bad it was you still wanted to eat it. The food was that delicious.

"You know" Taylor said between bites. "We need to step up our….. extracurricular activities. We've done a lot of good. But we haven't done much during our…."

"….. extracurricular projects?" I asked and she nodded.

It was true. Our hero persona haven't seen much action. So far we have gone on patrol and caught a couple of muggers, and rounded up a few of the leftover E88 gangsters who tried to beat up a dark skinned college student but that was all. Compared to the other stuff we had gotten up to, our official cape carrier was positively tame.

"The problem" I said as I finally gave up on finishing my burger. "Is that most of the villains in the city are taken care of. Even if someone new moves in my you know what might deal with them before we have a chance to costume up"

"I know" Taylor said morosely. "And I'm happy about what your you know what has done to help people. I just wish we'd have been able to get a few whacks in fist"

"Well" I said thoughtfully. "Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way? We focus on the problem right now. But what if we approached it from another angle. What do we want?"

"To take down super villains in our heroic identities" Taylor replied promptly.

"So how do we achieve that with the tools we have?" I questioned.

Taylor frowned. "I might…. You know there might be a way. Let me think about it"

"Okay" I agreed. I knew that she was a genius tactician. "I'll leave it in your hands"

BOOM!

"And that's our cue" I sighed. "Who is it this time? Has the Marquis broken out of the birdcage?"

"It's the Wards and _her_ " Taylor pointed outside.

I looked and sure enough, a battle was raging outside Fugly Bobs. The Brockton Bay Wards were facing off against the city's newest villain. Naturally I did what any sane man did in this situation. I pulled out my smartphone and tapped on the record button.

Outside the full might of the Brockton Bay Wards was arrayed against one lone villain.

She stood tall atop her floating hoverboard, fearlessly facing them down.

"This is your final warning!" Aegis, the captain of the Wards announced from where he floated above his team mates. "We have you cornered! Surrender or we will attack!"

The cape's only reply was to raise her hand and make a bring it, gesture at the junior heroes.

Aegis gave a single command. "Move in!"

Vista and ClockBlocker acted first.

In a move they had practiced a hundred times over, Vista shrank the space between the villain and ClockBlocker to nothing. Clockblocker's hand reached out with lightning speed. He just had to touch her. With his ability, the fight will be over before it could start.

Or it would have, if the villain hadn't fired what looked like a miniature missile from one of her wrist launchers.

The missile impacted with the junior hero and exploded. A moment later Clockblocker was covered from the neck down with what looked like PRT containment foam.

The hover board rose into the air, taking the villain out of the reach of most of the wards. A barrage of missiles launched from her wrist launchers and sped towards the Wards. Only to miss and impact harmlessly against the street well away from everyone. Space itself had twisted to make them miss. Vista's power. It was impossible to hit the wards as long as she protected them. She could control space itself and make them all but untouchable.

The villain just snapped her fingers.

Vista's sudden scream alerted the Wards, but it was too late. Vista was covered head to toe in the same substance that had covered Clockblocker. Not only was she immobile, but she had her sight cut off, and Vista's power depended on sight.

Two of the Wards had been disabled in less than a minute.

This time there was nothing to block the barrage of mini missiles the villain fired. A desperate attempt was made by one of the new Wards Veil, to cover his team in darkness and thus shield them from the missiles, but it proved futile.

When the darkness cleared all but two of the Wards had been disabled. Trapped inside the faux containment foam cocoons.

Kid Win and Aegis had escaped by virtue of being able to fly.

Those two Wards now leaped to action, Aegis charging the villain while Kid Win raked her with laser fire.

The villain flew her own hoverboard in loops to avoid the lasers while Aegis used the distraction to close the distance with her. The moment he laid hands on her though, things went wrong again. A massive electrical current ran through the Ward, overcoming even his resilience and knocking him out of the sky.

That left a lone Kid Win to fight the villain.

As the two parahumans on flying skateboards faced each other in a bizarre Mexican standoff, the villain spoke for the first time.

"You can always give up" Her voice echoed, muffled by some means.

"Not happening" Kid Win snapped, laser guns pointing at the villain. "Of course you can surrender..."

"Not likely!" The villain shouted as she launched more of her tiny missiles.

Kid Win managed to dodge them and return fire with his lasers. The villain, instead of dodging, used an inflatable shield to simple tank the laser shots.

Then the missiles that missed him the first time turned around in mid air and came at him again.

A surprised Kid Win didn't manage to dodge this time.

The villain stood triumphant over the defeated and faux containment foam encased forms of the Brockton Bay Wards. She brought her hoverboard in to land before she lightly hopped off and took a bow before the assembled crowd.

That done, she hopped back on her hoverboard and lifted off again.

Before the villain could make her escape however, she was interrupted by a new hero.

An aura of admiration and awe descended on the assembled crowd and villain alike as Glory Girl descended from the sky.

"You can't attack heroes like this and hope to get away with it!" Glory Girl declared as she floated closer. "I'll give you one chance to surrender!"

"Dagger" Was all the Villain said in reply.

"What?" Glory Girl said in confusion.

"My name is Dagger" The villain elaborated.

"Okay then Dagger" Glory Girl pronounced her name carefully. "Are you gonna surrender?"

The villain laughed. "No"

With a shout, Glory Girl flew at her with her fist cocked back, ready to deliver a devastating punch. The villain responded with a flash bang that blinded and disoriented the blonde heroine. Glory Girl screamed as she lost her vision and her aim went wide. As the heroine went past her, the villain effortlessly tagged her with one of her mini missiles and covered her from her neck down to her feet in the faux containment foam. Then she hit her with a dart that knocked the heroine unconscious and out of the sky.

When Glory Girl regained her senses, she was disabled and on the ground. And the villain was standing over her.

"You fought well" The villain said as she knelt down next to the downed heroine.

"Wha..." Glory Girl was speechless. She had expected gloating. "You one shotted me! I barely managed any resistance!"

"No, you fought well" The villain touched her cheek with a gloved hand, and Glory Girl shivered at the touch. "A true hero" The villain suddenly withdrew her hand and stood up. "See you around hero"

Glory Girl watched with open mouth as the villain hopped on her hoverboard and flew away.

"Well" I said as I finished recording. "That was something"

"She was pretty good" Taylor said from where she stood beside me. "No wonder she took down Armsmaster. We may have gotten lucky with her"

"Hmmmm, she's certainly versatile" I started to post the battle footage on PHO. "Should we do our heroic duty and chase her down?"

"We don't have our costumes and gear, by the time we go and get them it'll be too late" Taylor groused.

"Right" I agreed. "You know being a villain seems to be the best way to get some action these days"

"97.124% you're right" A voice said from behind me.

I turned and saw a kid of around 12 standing behind us. "See? She agrees with me"

Taylor was not amused. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"99.999% chance of me joining up with a kickass hero team if I came here today"

"Uh huh" Taylor put her hand on her hips. "And your name?"

"Dinah Alcott" The girl replied promptly.

Taylor exchanged a look with me. Her expression asked a silent question. _Is this the girl you told me about?_. I had taken the precaution of informing her about the notable parahumans of the city. Even the ones I suspected were active. I nodded in answer. _I think so_.

"Well then Dinah" Taylor said calmly. "You think being a villain is fun?"

"Um, yeah?" Dinah said hesitantly.

Taylor smiled. "What are the chances of us handing you over to your parents with a full explanation if you try and go villain?"

"100%" Dinah skulked.

Taylor's smile widened. "Chances of you wiggling out of it?"

"100%" Dinah skulked further.

"Good" Taylor nodded satisfied. "That's what happens to would be villains!"

Dinah sent a puppy eyed glance at me. I shook my head. "Don't look at me kid. She's in charge for these matters"

"But, but" Dinah spluttered. "There's nothing to be a hero for anymore! I was terrified that some creep was gonna kidnap me, then suddenly it just went away. The numbers suddenly changed. Then I was terrified the world was gonna end, then that went away. The numbers for the world ending suddenly changed" Huh, so we are guaranteed victory at this point? But the munchikin is still talking. "All the villains of the city are gone! Everything is nice and peaceful! There's no harm in being a villain just a bit!"

"How did you find us anyway?" I asked. I didn't think her power worked like that.

"I used a map and a calendar to ask questions" Dinah replied skulkily.

"A map" Taylor suddenly perked up. "Tell me Dinah, what are the chances of you betraying our secret identities to anyone?"

"0.000%" Dinah replied promptly.

"Well then Dinah" Taylor said brightly. "We are going to show you just what happens to villains, and why being one is a bad bad idea. Come along"

"No!" Dinah crossed her arms and planted her feet.

"Or I can call your parents?" Taylor was nothing if not persuasive.

"Okay fine" Dinah skulked some more.

After their departure. The PRT and the adult members of the Protectorate finally arrived at the crime scene. They sprayed the trapped Wards with the dissolver for containment foam, but it proved useless at dissolving this type of foam.

"There doesn't seem to be anything permanently wrong with them" Panacea declared after looking through all of them. She had been called in as soon as the PRT had secured the scene. "Just cramped from being trapped for so long"

"Thank you Panacea. That's a relief" Miss Militia said gratefully.

"So this was the same villain that took down Armsmaster huh?" She asked as she turned to work away.

"Looks that way. And this time she gave her name. Dagger" She said at Panacea's raised eyebrow.

"Well, good luck finding her. I'll get my sister and be on my way" She waved at the hero and walked over to where her sister was waiting.

"Hey Ames, ready to go?" Glory Girl asked when she got within arms reach.

"Are you up to it?" She asked, not wanting her sister to strain herself.

"Oh course I am!" Vicky declared. "You said it yourself. No permanent damage!"

"Okay then" Amy gave her permission and Vicky swept her up and took off. The city dropping away beneath them.

"So" Amy asked as they flew over the buildings. "How was the new villain? What'd you think of her?"

Glory Girl looked pensive. "She was a tough one"

"Really?" Amy asked.

Glory Girl nodded. "She took down the entire Wards team like it was nothing. She one shotted me" Then reluctantly. "She talked to me you know, called me a true hero, said she'd see me around"

"What?" Amy faked shock.

"Yeah. I get the feeling we'll meet again" There was a small smile in Glory Girls face.

"Looking forwards to it huh?" Amy hid a grin in her sisters shoulder.

"Kind of yeah" Glory Girl grinned. "Every hero needs a nemesis after all!"

Amy burst out laughing.

"All right Dinah" Taylor said as she stood in costume. "Last chance! Are you still planning to become a villain for fun?"

"Yes!" Dinah declared. She was wearing a domino mask and had a bedsheet tied around her shoulders as a cloak. "I was terrified of being kidnapped an then I was terrified that the world is going to end! Now I want to have some fun!"

"Well you can do it without going villain!" Taylor crossed her arms.

"No!" Dinah stomped her foot. "You're not my mom! You can't tell me what to do!"

I got the feeling this was the wrong thing to to say.

"Oh really?" Taylor grabbed one of Dinah's hands. "Victor. Do it!"

"Oh boy" I closed my eyes and lobbed a dart at the map of Brockton Bay we had on the table before us. When I opened my eyes the dart was no where to be found. "Where?"

"There" Taylor pointed. "It bounced off the table and landed there"

I looked to see the dart innocently sticking out of an atlas that had also innocently fallen out of the bookshelf and fallen open. "Seriously?"

"That's in Boston" Taylor informed me. "I ran the coordinates through my computer"

"Well how do we get there?" I asked the obvious question.

The answer came in the form of a man teleporting into my apartment. The smell of alcohol was overwhelming.

W. T. F

"That's Strider, a teleporter" Taylor helpfully identified him. That computer in her helmet is really pulling it's weight.

"Oh hey guyzzzzz!" Strider swayed towards us. He was utterly fucking wasted. I heard Dinah making gagging noises behind me.

"Hey buddy" I patted Strider on his shoulder. I was resigned to this madness by this point. "Would you mind giving us a lift?"

"Hey this is suicide!" Dinah yelled as she was dragged forwards. "Getting a drunk teleporter to send us anywhere will get us killed!"

Taylor wasn't budging. "No. You need to learn your lesson"

"Relax kid" I told her. "I get the feeling this will be the lest of your issues when the day is over"

There is the new chapter. Tell me what you think.


	16. Canon Omake 4

"Oh God No!"

"Arrrrrggghhhh!"

"My yes!"

"My unmentionables!"

"Grrrrrkkkk!"

"Hrrrrkkkk!"

"Mommy!"

Dinah was cowering behind a table. I was cowering behind Dinah.

"Oh god! She had them eat their…." Dinah whimpered.

"I know" I replied while I tried to cover my ears.

"And then she stuffed them down their…." She sobbed.

"I know kid" I fought to keep myself from throwing up.

"Where did she even get them anyway?" Dinah demanded.

"Well…." Taylor had a tinker specialty that let her make portable stuff. So she made portable drones. And Taylor being Taylor, she made a portable machine to make said portable drones. With funding from me she could make thousands of portable drones. Then she made a pocket dimension device (portable) to store her thousands of portable drones. Then she made a tinkertech helmet to control those above mentioned thousands of portable drones. The end result….. Taylor had BEES. Tinker tech BEES. Robot BEES.

"Oh dear Scion save us!"

With predictable results.

"I surrender!" Accord screamed as he waved a hastily built white flag.

Taylor stuffed his mouth with bees.

I reached out and grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniel's from Strider and pushed up the lower half of my mask to take a gulp. "Yes? What is it kid?" I demanded of Dinah who was tugging on my cloak.

"Can I have some?" She pointed at the jack.

"No!" I lowered the mask and passed the bottle back to strider. "I shouldn't be drinking in front of kids anyway"

"Then what about him?" She pointed at Strider who had the bottle in his mouth.

"We need him and I'm a hypocrite" I pointed at the scene before us. "And keep your eyes on the action"

"Oh god!" Dinah covered her eyes.

We spent another horrifying half an hour.

When all the carnage was done, Taylor walked briskly over to us. "Well Dinah!" She said brightly. "Do you see what happens to villains?"

"Whimper"

"Do you still want to be a villain?"

Rapid head shakes.

"Good girl!" Taylor pulled her into a hug. "Take your time and decide what you want to be, so long as it's not a villain"

"How about far away from you…."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Dinah yelled. "I think I want to be a ward" She hesitated. "Yes. Definitely Ward. 90.123% chance you'll never be a Ward"

"Good girl!" Taylor said again and turned to me still holding Dinah's hand. "Let's go home Victor"

"Got it" I gave Strider a pat on the shoulder. "Okay buddy. Brokton Bay now please"

"Whatever you say Elizabeth!" He saluted with the hand that held the bottle, spraying the precious fluid all over the place.

"My name isn't…. oh forget it" I said as Taylor giggled behind me.

The next moment the world vanished in the bright light of teleportation.

When the world came back, something was wrong.

"This isn't Brockton Bay" Taylor stated the obvious.

We were in a largish room with gray walls, floors and ceiling. Surrounding us were a bunch of people dressed in…..prison uniforms?

"Who the fuck are you?" One of the men demands as he takes a threatening step towards us.

"We're" Taylor stops. "Are you villains by any chance?"

Dinah hides her face in my cloak.

"Villains!" The man laughs loudly. "Kid, this is the birdcage!"

The fuck.

"Oh no!" Dinah screams. "We have to get out of here right now!"

There was laughter all around us.

"There is no way out of the birdcage little girl" One particularly stupid villain gloats.

"I'm not worried about us stupid!" Dinah sticks her nose in the air.

That was when the screaming sarted.

I stood to the side with Dinah, doing my best to look inconspicuous.

"So young man. How is the weather on the outside?" I turned to see a handsome man with long hair , cigarette casually on his lips.

"The weather is quite bland Mr?" What else could I do? And it distracted me from the screaming.

"Marquis" The handshake was firm.

"Oh I met your daughter back in the bay" I continued making small talk as the (one sided) battle raged behind us.

"Oh how is she doing?" The man's interest was piqued.

"Quite well. She made a name for herself as a world famous healer, but has recently started moonlighting as a villain"

"Really?" The Marquis leaned forward. Behind him, Cinderhands bawled like a baby, clutching his…. Bits.

"Yes. She even fought Glory Girl, Carol's daughter and dropped her with one strike" The Marquis looked proud. "I think she is shaping up to be her nemesis"

"Good to see her keeping up the family tradition" The Marquis preened.

"Yup. She certainly seems invincible to" At his inquiring glance I elaborated. "She defeated the entire Wards team in under a minute, that's over 12 capes"

"That's my little girl" The Marquis grinned. Behind us Teacher wailed as he was blinded.

"Yes she's calling herself Dagger you know" I said more to keep myself from noticing the carnage behind us than anything.

"Hmmm, I would have gone for a more…. Noble name"

"I'll pass it on" I said and raised an eyebrow questioningly as Marquis tapped my shoulder and pointed.

I turned to see Dinah had appropriated the bottle of jack from an unconscious Strider and was about to drink.

"Dinah!" At my shout she jumped, before putting the bottle down and sulking.

Seriously, kids nowadays are way too eager to grow up.

"Hi" I turned at the new voice to see a…. girl.

"And you might be?" And why are you interrupting my conversation with the coolest villain to ever prowl the Bay?

"Glastag Ulaine" She introduces herself.

Oh fuck me.

"Are you new here?" She asks.

"Sort of" I reply because honestly…..

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Whut?"

"No he doesn't" Dinah yells vindictively. Brat.

"Well in that case" But the fairy queen is interrupted, thankfully. "

"Okay Victor I'm all done" Taylor paused. "Oh, are you more villains?"

"I'm a poor man who has been innocently imprisoned and deprived of even the right to see his daughter" Marquis rose to the occasion wonderfully.

"Oh alright then" Taylor turned to us. "We really should take Dinah home now"

On cue, Strider jumped to his feet with a drunken shout and we teleported away.

"Hey Colin"

"Yes Dragon?"

"I think the security system in the Birdcage is glitched, can you help me look through it?"

"My pleasure"

When the world came back we were thankfully in Brockton Bay.

In fact we were in my apartment.

"So Dinah" Taylor asked the poor traumatized girl. "Do you want to be a villain still?"

"No!" Dinah shook her head rapidly. "I want to join the Wards and be a hero!"

"Thats a girl!" Taylor cheered. "Now lets get you home"

We managed that quite easily. Only making a quick stop at the local police station to deposit the drunken Strider.

We handed Dinah to her parents where she demanded to be made a Ward.

Then we came home.

"Well that's a good days work" Taylor said happily as we came back to my apartment.

"We teleported all across the United Sates and reduced most of it's parahuman gangs to…. Sobbing wrecks, well you did most it but I at the very least showed the flag. So yes, I'd say it was a good days work"

"Definitely" Marquis agreed.

"Since when were you here?" I demanded.

"Since the teleporter dropped us in your apartment" He replied cheerfully.

"Well it was nice seeing you" I waved at him and turned to go.

"Hey! Are you going to just abandon me here? The least you can do is offer me a place to stay"

I stared at him. "You're paying rent"

"Deal"

I turned away with a sigh.


	17. Canon Omake 5

Here is another canon omake.

Meanwhile with Eidolon…..

"The entire world stands shocked by the sudden disappearance of the Endbringer Behemoth. But the world rejoices because for the first time in a long time, we have hope"

With a click of his fingers he turned off the tv.

"Well" David aka Eidolon aka Errant turned and put an arm across the shoulders of the woman next to him. "This is good news indeed! Such good news that it's cause for celebration"

She giggled into his shoulder. "I really should be working you know. I've been here too long already"

"But this is work!" He insisted. "I need a lot more therapy!"

Dr Yamada laughed. "Well then sir. Lets see about dealing with your issues" Her hand that had been caressing his chest started inching down. "The doctor is in!"

A short while later the entire world watched in amazement as they watched the endbringer Leviathan, who had been sitting statue still in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just vanished….

"Wanna go another round?" Jessica asked as they lay among the tangled sheets.

"I… might not be able to" David groaned. "You ran me into the ground. In a good way" He admitted. "But it might be a while before I'm ready"

"I think I can cut down the turn around time" Jessica suggested with a grin.

"I'm sure you can. Go for it"

Not fifteen minutes later, the last of the Endbringers, the Simurgh, vanished the same way the other two did earlier.

A short omake. But sort of canon. Enjoy


	18. Canon Omake 6

Here is the next canon omake

Meanwhile With the heroes….

"We want to surrender" The bedraggled supervillain announced to the Protectorate hero.

"Right get in line" The harried looking hero replied absently.

"Wait? What?" The villain collected himself. "I don't think you heard. We" He indicated the group behind him. "Want to surrender"

The hero slammed his hands on to his desk. "Yes! I heard you the first time! Do you think you are the first bunch of villains who wanted to surrender today? Get in line like everyone else!"

The villain spluttered. "But, you dont understand! There are BEES!"

The hero sighed. "I know. The others said the same thing" His voice rose to a yell. "Get. In. Line!"

"Hoy Dragon!"

"What is it Narwhal?"

"We got another group of surrenders"

"Narwhal. There has been villains surrendering en mass ever since yesterday, babbling about bees. And I have this problem with Birdcage security to deal with. What makes them so…." She was cut off by the next words. "They're the dragonslayers"

"What?"

"Yup, turned themselves in" The Canadian heroine declared smugly. "In exchange for healing from Panacea to regrow their…. Bits, they handed over all their suits and this" Narwhal brandished an old computer at Dragon.

"All right I'll look at it. Plug it in" A moment later, Dragon was stuck speechless as she figured out what she had. "Oh my"

enjoy


	19. Canon Omake 7

This is the last of the canon omakes.

Meanwhile in Brockton Bay...

"I want to join the wards!" The girl wearing the domino mask declared.

Miss Militia wanted to bang her head against the desk. "And what was your name again?"

"Valkyrie"

"Powers?"

"Thrump 10ish"

"Parents?"

"They died in a fire!" She started to sob, unconvincingly.

"And you wouldn't have any knowledge of the faerie queen escaping the birdcage?" Miss Militia asked in a deadpan voice.

"What?" The girl clapped her hands to her cheeks in fake shock. "She has escaped the birdcage to peruse her true love? In that case I must join the wards. For surely they will keep me safe!"

"Uh huh" Miss Militia wasn't impressed. "Look this has been fun and all but..." She stopped when a hand tapped her shoulder.

She turned to see the new Ward, Insight standing behind her.

"Look!" Insight said in a very low whisper. "You have the strongest Trump since bloody Eidolon willing to join the heroes! Don't screw this up!"

"You know what she is!" Miss Militia hissed back.

"Oh I know" Insight agreed. "But with the big 3 awol, we need some heavy muscle no? Besides, who knows what she'll do if we turn her down?"

This time Miss Militia's head did hit her desk.

"Fine!" She growled. "Fine! Welcome to the Wards! I don't care anymore!"

There you have it. Enjoy.


	20. PHO Intrelude 3

This is a pho chapter. In case you are wondering I'm bringing this story to an end. It was fun to write, but I think it's petering out. So the next chapter will likely be the last.  
 **-+-**

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■

 **Topic:** **New Ward Trimurvate** **  
In: Boards ► Topics ►** **Brockton Bay** **  
Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On July 21st 2011:

So these last few days have been hectic. We've all talked here about the disappearing Endbringers, the missing Trimurvate, and the sudden surrender of most of the parahuman gangs in the U.S. But the surprises haven't stopped coming yet.

Brockton Bay, previously the most cape crime ridden city of the U.S, is now home to what might be the next generation Triumvirate. In a press conference today they announced the formation of the new team, and how they will be trained and deployed against the truly dangerous threats to the country and th world when they come of age.

Can they handle it? Well lets look at their roster.

Valkyrie – Trump 10

Oracle – Thinker 10 specialty precognition

Switch – Blaster 4 Trump 7 able to switch the minds of two people between two bodies

Lets get some discussion going people. What do you think?

 **(Showing page 10 of 48)**

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

A healer that can instantly transfer a patient to a healthy clone body, or take away the powers of a dangerous villain.

A trump on the level of Eidolon.

A precog who can see the future so well they rank 10.

Yeah they got this.

► **PixyPete**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Hey you're right!

Switch can do more than fix case-53's. He can take away powers!

► **Steve1523**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

They evacuate cities for level 8 you know.

► **MrMister**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

I was worried when the big three up and vanished. But now I can rest easy.

► **WingedOne**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

*Pr-recorded message* I do not approve.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Is no one else seeing the connection between Valkyrie and the Faerie Queen escaping the Birdcage?

 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On July 21st 2011:

The PRT and Dragon are both denying it. Even I havent been able to find out anything about that.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Also, best not to piss off the next Eidolon.

► **Jumping_Jack**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Hollyyyyyy shit!

Trump, healer and precog.

These three might be better than the old three.

► **MrMister**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Oracle can predict where crimes happen, Valkyrie can go and bring them in and Switch can fix any damage.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

I still miss the old trio :(

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Maybe the new trio can rescue them in heroic fasion?

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Has anyone else noticed how there were three endbringers, three members in the old triumvirate and now three in the new one?

► **Steve1523**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

You know, there might not be much for the new triumvirate to do. Someone cleaned house with the villains.

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Very true.

► **PixyPete**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

I wonder if it's the mystery cape who took down the s class threats?

► **Mochazen**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

If so, then they've been busy.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

I really wonder where the triumvirate went though.

► **EVIL_EIDOLON**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

LOOK NO FURTHER!

They are all my helpless prisoners as we speak.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

No!

► **Bob143**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Are you for real?

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

It might be true!

► **Jinx**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Oh shut up!

► **Real_Eidolon**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

I'll get around to you. Hold on, a bit busy right nowwwww.

► **Mochazen**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Really? Really?

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

But who is the real Eidolon? Is the one who claims to be the clone the real clone? Or is it the one who claims to be real?

► **Bob143**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Will someone call a mod?

► **MrBrown**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Shall we get back on topic? The new Triumvirate.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Yes!

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Hey i'm being serious!

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

It's gonna be a while before the new big 3 get to legal age though. We are gonna have to wait a while before they begin their heroics.

► **Bob143**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Well Oracle can get started early. Let's hope it dont become pre-crime.

► **Gecko17**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

Nah. Our PRT wont do that will they?

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **... 10,** **11** **,** **12** **,** **13** **,** **14** **...** **46** **,** **47** **,** **48**

 **(Showing page 15 of 48)**

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On July 25th 2011:

The Marquis is back?

► **Bob143**  
Replied On July 25th 2011:

It's not the Marquis, it's a bone manipulator who has taken over the BB underworld and is forbidding prostitution, drugs, rape and other unsavory crimes. They're totally different people.

► **SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied On July 25th 2011:

Good. Now listen to what you just said.

► **MrMister**  
Replied On July 25th 2011:

I actually remember him from back when. He was an improvement over most of the gangs we had a month ago.

► **ConectedMonkey**  
Replied On July 25th 2011:

I hope he doesnt come to settle the score with New Wave.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On July 21st 2011:

He totally will!

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **10** **,** **11** **,** **12** **,** **13** **,** **14,** **15 ...** **46** **,** **47** **,** **48**

-+-

There we go. Expect the last chapter around next week. Till then!


	21. Chapter 11

This is the final (and very short) chapter.

Chapter 11

We stood atop the former medhall building gazing at the city of Brockton Bay spread out beneath us.

Taylor had spread her swarm of (portable) drones all across the city, aided by (portable) range extenders. This allowed her to perform effective surveillance on the entire city. She used a (portable) image projector to display the surveillance footage for us. Various scenes from the daily life of the new Brockton Bay.

Looking at them I could feel that we achieved something in the three short month I was here. I had done some genuine good in the world.

In the newly renovated docks the supervillain Dagger battled her nemesis Glory Girl.

Aboard the newly running ferry, Brandish dueled Marquis Margrave.

In Taylor's new school Arcadia, the Brockton Bay Wards were doing a PR shoot.

In the PRT HQ the (much reduced) Protectorate members were playing scrabble.

In Taylor's house Miss Militia and Danny Hebert were role playing superheroine in peril. With Danny as the villain.

…..

…..

…..

Wait.

What was on that last screen?

"Oh god!" The words came to me quite involuntarily.

"Victor?" Taylor said very very calmly.

"Yes?" Oh this can't be good.

"I need some time away from home" She turned to face me fully. "I'm sure i've been traumatized for life"

"I" I stole another glance at the screen. "You know, I agree. No child should see _that_ " I pulled her into a hug. "So, where shall we go?"

On cue, the smell of ozone spread across the roof of the medhall building, followed by a familiar crackling sound. Just as we turned to face it, one of the now familiar dimensional portals opened before us.

We exchanged a look.

"This might be a really really bad idea" I stated the obvious.

"I really really need this" Taylor stated the blindingly obvious, pointing at the screen where her dad… oh hell that woman is flexible.

"Alright" I allowed. "But other than that, this world has just barely been downgraded from a death world. I think we deserve a little r&r"

Taylor reached into her pocket dimensional storage and produced a box. Then she proceeded to open said box and wave the pile of autographed female underwear inside it under my face.

"Alright" I allowed again. "But we can always hope that Valkyrie will come to her senses and stop sending me autographed panties..." Taylor raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "….. okay fine. That's not happening any time soon" I let out a long breath and accepted my fate. "This does look like a…. marginally good option"

The portal sat there innocently.

I paused. "Should we get David?"

"We haven't left the bed except to pee. This can't be healthy" Jessica said as they embraced.

"It's totally healthy!" David insisted. "We're getting plenty of exercise!"

Then he proceeded to prove his point.

"…. Yeah let's not" I decided on second thought. "But what will you tell your dad?"

"I'll write a note" Taylor focused for a moment. "There, done"

I drew a deep breath. "Alright then, Are you ready?"

Taylor nodded and linked her hand with mine.

Together we stepped into the portal.

Finis

That's it people. This is it for this story, baring one last omake. Thank you for reading, correcting my mistakes giving me feedback and encouraging me to keep going. Peace.


	22. Canon Omake 8

Meanwhile with Contessa…...

In an alley in London there lived a hobo.

This wasn't the cool kind of alley where Batman fought the rouges gallery. This was the genuine shit stain alley. It was lined with garbage bins and heaps of refuse (Lots of these). And until recently it was only occupied by one lonely hobo.

But, following the process of natural selection, he had at last managed to attract a female hobo. She was quite attractive, despite the hoboness. She also wore a really cool fedora.

Now they sat side by side in the alley way.

Occationally they were visited by a golden man.

The female passed it's mate a card.

He carefully read off it. "You need to take it easy" He read slowly occasionally glancing up the floating man before him. "How about a vacation?"

[INQUIRERY?]

"Time. Out" Mr Hobo carefully spelled out.

[DELAY?]

"No. Some time to chill" He winced at a nudge from the fedora wearing female hobo. "Maybe. Switch off the agents aggression while you are at it?"

[CONFUSION]

The female hobo buried her face in her hands. "This is going to take a while"

The buzzing sound of a propeller driven aircraft made her look up.

Overhead, an old bi plane was sky writing. It said "Dont Give up!"

"It's been three months!" Contessa sobbed into her fedora. Her hobo friend patted her shoulder.

Scion looked on in confusion.

Final omake to mark the end of the story.


End file.
